fle-pics (and fle-thoughts)

A Reminder of the Old Days

2012-02-14T20:19:00.000-06:00

Did I write something recently about maybe doing a smaller version of the Millsaps photo project? I've been editing basketball photos this evening and am totally exhausted. The bad news is that I'm not even up to halftime of the women's game and then there's all of the men's game left to do. It will be a minimum of 10 hours spent on editing after spending 4-5 hours at the gym taking the photos. That's a lot of time invested in these photos.

At least I know they will be appreciated, especially by the three senior players and their families. Pictured here is Janice Okeke, the lone senior from the women's team. That's her sister and father with her. Janice celebrated her Senior Day with 11 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks in leading Millsaps to a crucial 55-47 victory over Rhodes College. She's also a wonderful person and it's always a pleasure to visit with her when our paths cross at Millsaps.

Well, this was my break from editing and now it's back to the crop, enhance, and save routine. Hopefully I'll get to the photos from the second half of the women's game this evening and completely finished with both games sometime this weekend. After that, maybe I'll have a little bit of editing momentum going and will be able to get to all of those Christmas photos that I've been avoiding.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

2012-02-13T19:02:00.000-06:00

I'm sure everyone out there remembers that Tuesday is Valentine's Day and therefore you have done all the appropriate planning and buying and whatever to mark the occasion. Hope you all have a LOVEly day!

Bloodbird, Meltones, and Los Buddies

2012-02-12T12:51:00.003-06:00

Last spring/early summer I took some videos of a local band named "The Overnight Lows". The videos turned out okayish and are definitely better than nothing. However, they are definitely very inferior to the videos that Mississippi Public Broadcasting took of the band. Here's an example of what was produced by MPB:

I can't compete with that type of operation. Special lighting, at least 3 cameramen with big professional cameras, audio recorded through the soundboard, no audience making noise or crowding the stage, and plenty of professional editing. A lot of time and money went into producing this sub-2 minute video.

Inability to produce decent quality is a frustration with video that I didn't find in photography. Put me at a sporting event or concert with my camera equipment and there's a chance that I'll come away with a photo just about as good as the best professional photographers. Put me at a concert with my video equipment and the results will never look very professional. Even with better equipment, what I can produce as an individual will be severely lacking compared to a professionally done video.

In a way, it makes me think that maybe I need to find a way to do both. Cut back on the videos to just the folks who currently have nothing of somewhat decent quality, and do a cut back version of the Millsaps project where I am able to do quality work. By the way, I took some Millsaps photos last week that are going to be treasured in decades to come. Trying to do both projects would require finding balance, something that is difficult for me to do. Even I know with near certainty that trying to do both is a formula for disaster. Don't know why I would even entertain such a thought.

Well anyway, in addition to taking photos at the Millsaps Basketball Senior Day this past Saturday, I did take videos Friday night at a benefit held for a local Jacksonian. Three acts, all including people I like, and all are bands that haven't been filmed in the past by some professional group like MS Public Broadcasting. Here's a video of each act, plus a bonus video of a band I've never heard of playing in a bar that I would never enter:

Here is Bloodbird Harrington and in the background is the scene of Pee-wee Herman dancing to "Tequila". It really worked well having scenes play on the wall while the bands were performing:

Los Buddies video--this is as wideangle as my video camera gets and I could barely get all the band members in one shot:

Here we have Frank and the Meltones singing what might have been the theme song of Jackson's ex-mayor Frank Melton:

And finally, while I was on YouTube getting these links, I saw this video. It falls into the category of "Bands I'll never record in places I'll never visit". Truthfully, I think it would be great to record a show like this but this place and crowd seems a little too rough for the likes of me.

If You've Missed the Jeremy Lin Story...

2012-02-11T09:17:00.000-06:00

...well then you are missing one of the best sports stories that has come along in a while. Better than the Tim Tebow story by far because Jeremy was an undrafted basketball player out of Harvard who was barely hanging on in the NBA until this week. He has been sleeping on his brother's couch instead of getting his own place because the likelihood of getting cut was so high. Now, with the Knicks two superstars sitting out with injuries, Lin has led an underachieving New York Knicks team to 4 straight wins including a win over the Lakers last night with Lin scoring 38 points. Remarkable.

Here's a link to the Lakers game story and you can find all you need to know about Jeremy Lin with a simple internet search.

Do You Like Me?

2012-02-09T20:43:00.001-06:00

Can you relate to this cartoon? It's a feeling I know well. My photos on facebook and flickr have always generated few hits and likes, so much so that I've mostly quit posting photos anywhere. In addition, my videos usually don't get many hits and my blogs aren't widely read.

Sounds like a trend and let's be honest, maybe a lot of my stuff doesn't deserve much attention. That's not to say that what I produce is horribly bad, but it clearly isn't as good as many items that are available to internet users. Maybe it is a little preposterous for me to even hope for significant hits and likes.

However, here we have two hummingbird photos that were posted to facebook. The top photo in one that I saw on facebook yesterday. After 31 minutes it had 42 likes. The bottom photo is one I added to facebook about 20 months ago. It has 2 likes. Is the top one better? Maybe, but is it really that much better?

Does this bother me? Bother might not be the right word, but it does affect me to some degree. The good thing is that low expectations keeps me from getting very depressed about low numbers. Plus, the low expectations allow me to get something of a thrill out of those rare occasions when one of my items does get a bit of recognition. Mostly the numbers affect me by telling me where to spend my time, such as me realizing that the Jackson MS Music blog's low hit count didn't justify the time that was being spent on that project.

Of course, as a 60-year old, it was be rather sad if my emotions fluctuated a lot based on hits and likes, but what if I was just 16? I think the 16 year old Frank would have been affected quite a bit by hits and likes. My gut feeling is that social media is tough on the unpopular kids of today. It just seems like facebook and other social media provide a means for the popular to expand their popularity and for the unpopular to see just how far down the totem pole they are. Kids of today probably do have it much better than the kids of my childhood, but maybe the kids of my childhood had it easier.

Gecko Sighting during Mild Mississippi Winter

2012-02-08T20:08:00.000-06:00

How mild has it been this winter in Mississippi? Mild enough that my resident gecko came out for a visit on February 2nd. With lows in the 30's predicted for the next few days, I don't think I'll be seeing him again any time soon.

Millsaps Baseball Wins Season Opener

2012-02-07T21:16:00.002-06:00

Millsaps had their baseball season opener Tuesday afternoon against neighborhood rival Belhaven University. Hardly an easy opener as Belhaven already had 6 games under their belt and a #15 NAIA ranking. NAIA schools give athletic scholarships, NCAA Division 3 schools like Millsaps do not.

Belhaven opened up a 3-0 lead after a few innings and Millsaps tied the game. Belhaven scored again for a 4-3 lead and once again Millsaps tied the score. In the top of the 9th Belhaven produced a 3-run homer for what looked like the victory, but Millsaps rallied for 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th for the victory.

Naturally I had a point-and-shoot camera with me and that automatically means that I took photos. Below are 8 of the 50 or so photos that I kept:

01--Preparing the field. I just liked the pattern of the water.

02--Taking the field. Look to the upper left and you can see that a cameraman is taking a photo of the team huddle. Last year some of the parents hired a photographer. This year I think it is the team paying for a photographer. Do you think anyone at Millsaps has ever figured out the monetary value of all the work I did? Probably not. It still bugs me a bit that during all those years of taking photos I was never recognized as an alumni donor to the school or a contributor to the M-Club.

03--No explanation necessary.

04--Junior college transfer Will Edwards with the opening pitch of the season. He pitched 3 shutout innings and I hope that's a sign of very good things to come.

05--Supporting your teammates.

06--Not much of a picture of Millsaps senior Drew Leonard except that the man in the background is his dad. One of those photos that might mean nothing or might mean a lot to the Leonard family.

07--Millsaps senior Andrew Evans. He has worked hard over the years and waited for his opportunity. Today he got the start at 1st base and he delivered 4 rbi at the plate including driving in the last 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th.

08--Freshman William Chenoweth's first collegiate pitch. He is from Houston, TX so it's unlikely that his parents were at the game. Hopefully they will see this photo at some point and get to share the moment even if it is after the fact.

25 Rules for Mothers of Sons

2012-02-05T18:12:00.000-06:00

I saw a friend's post on facebook about "25 Rules for Mothers of Sons". That facebook post referenced back to a post on Pinterest, a website described as "an online pinboard". That post got me back to the greatly expanded original source, a blogpost written by Tabitha Studer. Tabitha's original post can be found by Clicking Here.

Is it wrong to have a list specific for sons rather than having one list with the same rules for all children? Is it wrong to have a list for Moms and supposedly a different list for Dads? No point in a non-parent like me weighing in on those questions. I do think that when it comes to gender, the idea of equality doesn't mean that everyone has to take the exact same path to get to the same spot. The important thing is that everyone is given the opportunity to become the best person they can possibly be.

Thursday down, Friday to Go

2012-02-03T12:07:00.000-06:00

There is a part of me that really does want to cut back on the videos. Maybe just go out and listen to music, talk to people. But truthfully, I get bored when just watching an event. I’ve spent too much time these last few years doing things at events—being "just" a spectator is difficult. Plus, at most of these events I’m still surrounded by a few people that I know casually and then mostly strangers. There aren’t that many people to talk to when I go to the places where I go.

Last night I was at Sneaky Beans filming two acts. The solo artist in the video above and a 5 person band from Jackson. I believe my efforts had some sort of positive influence, maybe not. There was certainly a better chance of doing something positive by filming than by just sitting at home.

Tonight I’ll go out again. In theory, I’ll be at the Millsaps women’s basketball game as a spectator, then back to Sneaky Beans for a Denver duo that’s passing through, then over to the Ole Tavern to film a friend, and finally a stop at Hal and Mal’s for a CD release party of a band that I’ve never recorded. That’s the plan right now—it might not be the plan at 6 pm nears. Sometimes I actually wise up and realize that I’m biting off more than I can chew—but the odds are that this isn’t going to be one of those nights.

Images from Facebook

2012-02-01T20:17:00.000-06:00

I don't know what the artist was trying to convey with all of the bicycles stuck to the building, but it does look pretty neat. It also probably cost the taxpayers of whatever country a pretty penny.

Felt like this photo went with the bicycles on the building photo. It is amazing the things that kids did in the 70's, 60's, and early decades that were acceptable at that time but would horrify the parents of today.

Ironic photo of the year--big brother is watching.

Well, it's not like Neville is all that hot, it's just that the others are registering somewhere around lukewarm.

Literate cats sometimes take things too literally.

Reflection on Appetite for Jackson

2012-01-31T18:58:00.000-06:00

A portion of the crowd at the "Appetite for Jackson" event held January 28, 2012 in downtown Jackson, MS. This is a mirror image reflection from a wall of the Convention Center located across the street from "Appetite for Jackson".

Another big Jackson event is rapidly approaching, the 30th annual Mal's St. Paddys Day Parade. Here's an animated video with more details about the event:

Items from the World of Sports

2012-01-30T19:51:00.001-06:00

I hardly ever watch televised sports, don't really care that much about who wins and loses, but for some reason I still keep up with sports through radio shows and the internet. Here are some thoughts on recent items from the world of sports:

NFL Pro Bowl: This game was available for free viewing on the internet so I caught about 10 plays in the first half. That's all I could watch. The battle in the trenches between the offensive and defensive linemen was closer to "Dancing With the Stars" than it was to football. The NFL Pro Bowl has to be the worst All-Star game of all the major sports. Even though the above highlight video has plenty of action and scoring, it's a little ho-hum when the defenders are only making a token effort.

Australian Open Tennis Championship: (1) I liked it better when men's tennis had enough depth that there were upsets on the way to the semi-finals. (2) I liked it better when women's tennis had more stability at the top of the rankings. (3) While the rallies must have been spectacular, a 5-set final that lasted just short of 6 hours sounds like it would be as boring as watching 3 low scoring soccer matches in a row between the same teams. (4) On the other hand, having to listen to an 82-minute women's championship with both competitors shrieking on every shot would have been just as painful.

Tiger Woods--glass half empty or half full: Tiger Woods had a share of the lead going into the final round this past weekend and he lost the tournament. That's big news, especially since he failed to win the last time he was in a similar situation. There was a time when Tiger with a lead on Sunday was almost unbeatable. Maybe that time has passed, but I think he'll have a huge comeback year in 2012. If you forced me to bet, I'd put my money on him winning at least 1 of the 4 majors this season.

Millsaps Lady Majors--15 and counting: The Lady Majors went to Texas this past weekend and won against Southwestern and Trinity. That puts the Lady Majors win streak up to 15 games and their overall record at 18-2. The two losses were to Louisiana College, currently 16-2 and ranked 23rd in the country, and Centre, currently 17-1 and ranked 26th in the country. Considering the results of the last decade, it's hard to believe that women's basketball is the most successful sports team at Millsaps right now.

Will Peyton every play again?: It looks almost certain that Peyton Manning won't be with the Colts next year, so the big questions are will he play next year and if so, with whom? If you were super rich, a sure hall-of-famer, and on the tail end of your career anyway, would you go out there and risk another neck injury? I wouldn't, but my suspicion is that Peyton will if it is at all possible. This is a drama that might take on Farve-like proportions before it comes to a conclusion.

Chad Ochocinco gets in the head of his teammates: You might have seen that Chad Ochocinco celebrated his first trip to the Super Bowl by buying all of his New England teammates Beats by Dre Headphones which cost $500 a piece. Ochocinco may not be a vital team member for the Patriots but his gift giving is far better than star quarterback Tom Brady. According to the story I read, "On Friday, UGGs and their spokesman, Tom Brady, gave the entire team a pair of boots." I assume that each team member got boots, not just one pair for the entire team, but somehow it doesn't seem like UGG boots are the macho footware of the NFL. Footware of the WNBA maybe, but not the NFL.

OKAY, that's my take on sports for today. I'll go ahead and predict a NY Giants victory in the Super Bowl this Sunday, but my primary focus will be on the Super Bowl Squares contest we have going at the office. Hopefully I won't have to pull against the Giants at the end of the game in order to grab a $50 payout. Would I sell out Eli for such a small sum? Well, let's just hope that it doesn't come down to having to make that decision.

A Great Day, Not so Great Results

2012-01-29T19:37:00.000-06:00

Jewel Bass and These Days with a rehearsal of Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff" prior to taping the song as part of chef Andrew Zimmern's television show "Appetite for Life: Southern Hospitality". This was part of the "Appetite for Jackson" event held at the Art Garden at the Mississippi Museum of Art in downtown Jackson, MS (1/28/12).

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It happens to everyone. Plans that don't produce. Time invested and getting nothing in return. High hopes with low results. All these things describe the way this past Saturday afternoon and evening went for me.

For Jackson, Saturday was a great day thanks to the "Appetite for Jackson" festivities. This event was put together as a backdrop for an episode of the television show "Appetite for Life: Southern Hospitality with chef Andrew Zimmern". Some of you know Andrew Zimmern as the host of "Bizarre Foods" on the Travel Channel. The event was a great success with a wonderful mixture of art, food and music. Just as important, it was an event that had a mixture of blacks and whites enjoying the day together. We need a lot more events like that in Jackson.

It was the music that drew me to the event. Truthfully, I shouldn't have been out this weekend taking videos. I needed to spend the weekend catching up or resting up, but a big festival with a 7 band lineup and getting to shoot during daylight is a rarity. On paper, it sounded like a good opportunity. In reality, I should have stayed home.

The above video was one of the highlights. There are a few of "Jewel Bass and These Days" that are okay and maybe I'll post the rest of those. It's possible that I can use a few of the "Southern Comfort Brass Band", but those didn't really turn out great. Taylor Hildebrand's set got cut short and I only have two videos, both songs that have better versions already posted on YouTube. The "Spacewolf" set got cut completely because of delays caused by the television taping.

That leaves 3 other bands that I recorded, the "Bailey Brothers", the "Furrows", and "Dead Gaze". All of the videos of those bands look great and sound terrible. They all sound terrible because I was filming from the front left of the stage about 5 feet away from a huge speaker. It was the same old story of a small group of fans standing right in front of a low stage, cutting off the band from video cameras and the vast majority of their potential audience. That situation isn't going to change and I might just stop going to venues where it is likely to happen. I think it won't be long before I'm about ready to stop doing the videos altogether. It's becoming a very difficult hobby.

One other thing I'm ready to stop doing is writing such negative posts. I seem to do a lot of that lately. I'm going to be upbeat the rest of the week and also probably shorten up the posts. It seems like that would do us all a lot of good.

When facebook posts get disturbing

2012-01-26T20:10:00.000-06:00

One of my facebook friends is a casual acquaintance in real life. His name is Mark and he lives a few blocks down the street from my duplex. I've featured photos of his funky yard a few times on this blog and on the Fondren blog. The 60 minutes of time I've spent talking to him over the last couple of years have been interesting and pleasant, but they certainly haven't given me much insight into his personality and life.

This photo is one of 24 "The End" photos that he posted to facebook Thursday afternoon. Most of the photos show the text "the end", a few have "that's all folks", one has "fin", and a couple just show an atomic bomb explosion. This album comes on the heels of several recent posts that are troublesome (shown below in order from most recent to oldest):

"i am at the end of the rope. literally!" (Monday, 17:09)

"I am amazed how little people care about others. Amazing what "me" world it is." (Monday, 02:36)

"JUST A REMINDER LIFE SUCKS" (January 20, 21:45)

"I am not and never have been a fan of xmas and facebook reminds why!" (December 18)

"How can life suck this damn much!!!!!!" (December 15). Under this post someone left the comment "Believe me when I tell you, it could be worse.", and the response by Mark was "I know Jill but homeless is pretty bad."

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Is this someone blowing off steam, issuing a cry for help, or possibly on the verge of committing suicide? Are any of his true friends doing more than leaving facebook comments? Is there something I should do other than sit here and hope that this won't end in a tragedy?

For all practical purposes, I'm a stranger to this person and my gut tells me that this isn't a situation where I should be involved. Friends and family members have left comments on the photo album and certainly they have been reaching out in many other ways. These concerned individuals have now become victims in a way, being put in a position of not knowing what they can do and what they should do. Possibly being put in a position of doubt/guilt if this situation ends up with the worst possible conclusion.

I don't know how this is going to end up. I do know that I've seen people go through some extremely dark periods of life before they emerge into a life that is very much worth living. For the sake of Mark and the people who care about him, I hope he will let others into his life who can help him find a brighter day in the near future.

Plenty of Blog Post Topics

2012-01-24T20:21:00.000-06:00

Often during the day I'll hear, see or just think about something that on first impression seems like it would be a good blog post. Most of those ideas probably wouldn't be so great, but here's a list of recent things that might have some potential:

---The tale of how 20-year-old guitarist Joe Robinson, the 2008 winner of "Australia's Got Talent", ended up playing at Sneaky Beans and why I can't make public the videos from that night.

---Thoughts about the NFL, the Saints, Eli, Peyton, etc.

---After helping sponsor a local photographer's plans to do a "50 states in 50 weeks" photojournalism project, my reaction after seeing facebook photos from Hawaii and Disney World as the first destinations for his project.

---What I thought after a band recently asked me to remove all the videos I took at their show--plus about a dozen other topics that revolve around my video project. By the way, if you don't mind me tooting my own horn (which is the only musical talent that I have), a local musician wrote this on facebook recently: "We really appreciate the love and support of everyone who came out. Also, a huge debt of gratitude to the amazing Frank Ezelle for taking the time to video the whole event. You are doing amazing things for the state of Jackson music." Comments like that certainly motivate me to continue with the videos.

---A woman who is in her 90's that I see on every trip to the Laundromat. She's out walking a route in North Jackson every day, collecting cans to turn in for what is probably much needed cash.

---A 30-year old romantic inscription written inside the cover of a used book that I ordered for Mother through the Amazon website.

---Thoughts about talented kids like Renardo Sidney being put in the position of being the "family business" before they are even old enough to legally drive a car.

---A "Cowards on Tape--Part 1" post about a group of teens who ganged up to beat and rob a 15-year old and then were all arrested when they posted a video of the crime on YouTube.

---A "Cowards on Tape--Part 2" post about Alabama fans taking advantage of an LSU fan who had passed out, including one Crimson Tide fan ruining his life by "tea bagging" the LSU fan while video cameras were rolling."

---Numerous thoughts about politics, but we try to keep politics off the blog.

---A potentially humorous take on "Rock rolls off the Jackson airways", a post about my search for new radio stations after two rock stations were recently converted to Christianity.

---My thoughts on the just released Oscar nominations and wondering if "The Help" will be helped a lot by a wave of voters who want to strike a symbolic blow against the racial inequality of a long ago era.

The above are a sampling of the type things which get "written" up in my head each day. Very few of these various mental posts ever make it to the blog. It's easy to come up with a topic, it's easy to do the musings on a subject, and it's even easy to come up with clever lines that would add a little zing to the posts, but it's hard to transfer those thoughts to written words. Coming up with written words that somewhat adequately captures my thoughts takes time that I rarely have, and then there's no assurance that making such an effort will produce something that interest any of you. I have no idea if the things that interest me are of any interest to anyone else--there's definitely an element of flying blind when it comes to writing a blog.

Of course, I could just forget the writing and post quotes, links to interesting stories, and humorous images that I occasionally save off of facebook. Maybe that's not a bad idea--so here are a few dog related things to end the post. Hopefully one or two will give you a smile:

Liver Mousse and other weekend things

2012-01-22T20:54:00.001-06:00

I like this couple. Liver Mousse is the duo of Caitlin McNally and Cody Cox and this was the last song of their last scheduled show prior to their March wedding. If you ask me, they ended on a high note prior to taking a musical break.

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It was a busy weekend and here's my recap:

---SUPER AWESOME is the way I describe a package that arrived at my house this weekend, a gift from my friend Katie. She was in Jackson recently to run the MS Blues Half Marathon and we had a chance to visit over dessert before she flew back to North Carolina. I borrowed a pen from her that day and loved it so much that she let me keep it. The package in the mail contained 9 additional pens as a thank you for taking photos at the race. I'm going to love using this gift. (btw, the pens are Pentel EnerGel Deluxe--try one and I think you'll love it too.)

---You know how the weather changes so quickly at this time of year in Mississippi. Freezing temps one day, feels like spring the next. You also know that my mood swings are just about as sudden when it comes to my projects. Friday I took videos of Melody M. at a house party, then went to Hal and Mal's to film Liver Mousse and two other bands. Saturday evening I was at a CD Release show held at the Eudora Welty Commons. Wasn't I just about burned out on all this a few days ago?

It's hard to explain. Pardon the unpleasantness of this example, but it's sort of like feeling much better after you throw up. Sometimes I just have to get rid of negative things that build up. Of course the backlog of work hasn't gone away and I still have a massive amount of things to work on, but I sort of released the pressure of having to get those things done. I'll try to whittle the pile down a little this week.

---And speaking of huge piles: (1) Friday afternoon I washed clothes for the first time since before Christmas; (2) Sunday afternoon and evening I ironed a huge pile of clothes. While ironing I watched two movies by the Coen brothers, "Raising Arizona" which was released in 1987, and "The Big Lebowski" from 1998. My guess is that the Coen brothers had a much larger budget in 1998 than they had 11 years prior, but in my opinion "Raising Arizona" is the far better movie. It is truly a classic.

---I also took some time Sunday evening to log onto Hulu.com and watch an episode of the new television show "The Finder". I really wanted to like the show, but found the story line too over the top when it comes to believability. On a related topic, I watched the pilot episode of the animated "Napoleon Dynamite" last week. That is one really bad show! All that being said, I expect the general American viewing public will love both programs.

---One last thing from the weekend that might rub some people the wrong way. Millsaps basketball has been rather dreadful for most of the 21st century. They hired a new coach for the 2010-11 season and it was too late for him to do any recruiting for that first year. He took a group that was 1-24 in 2009-10 and ended up 12-13, plus improved from 1-15 to 8-8 in conference games. This year he was able to bring in some recruits and with two wins over the weekend, Millsaps is 16-2 overall and 7-1 in the conference.

Here's what I wonder: Would Millsaps Women's Basketball have been more successful over the last 10 years if there hadn't been an unwritten requirement that the head coach be a female? I lean towards a strong "yes" to this question. After all, how can you hire the best new coach if you eliminate over half of the prospective candidates right off the bat? I believe Millsaps was willing to sacrifice potential success for dozens of female student-athletes in order to make a politically correct choice when hiring the coach. I believe that given the choice, the women basketball players over the last 10 years would have gladly played for a male coach if the results would have been anywhere near the success that Millsaps has seen over the last year and a half. There have been a lot of good players at Millsaps over the last decade and it's a shame that they weren't given the maximum chance to succeed.

A New Camcorder in my Brighter Future?

2012-01-19T20:47:00.001-06:00

I currently own a Panasonic HDC-HS700 camcorder and a Canon Vixia HFM40 camcorder. They are both nice and with accessories my total investment has been about $1,500. Not exactly small change, but a fairly small amount compared to what I've invested in photography gear.

You all know my philosophy when it comes to my projects and equipment. Spending a lot on equipment is okay because my time is the biggest investment. Spending a lot is also okay because I have a strong belief that what I capture will have great value a few decades down the road. Not value to the masses, but value to the individuals and their friends and family.

The Vixia HFM40 purchased last month is nice, but I was looking for more. A more professional camera, one that would be a little more comparable to the top-of-the-line Canon equipment I use for photography. This week I received an email from the B&H Photography/Video Store and it featured the Canon EOS C300 Camcorder shown here. It looked promising right from the start.

Sure, it is obviously a little bigger and more conspicuous than what I've been using in the past, but not so big that it would look like I'm filming for a television station. Plus, it has a lot of buttons which would probably mean a steep learning curve, but I'm willing to spend the time to learn. And, with it being a Canon and clearly of high quality, the price tag is going to be far higher than the $1,500 that I've already spent, but I'm already investing a lot in the way of time spent.

Well, clicking on THIS LINK gave me an idea of just how much higher one can go when buying a camcorder. How about $15,999--and that's just for the relatively inexpensive camcorder body!!! The 30-300mm lens comes in just shy of $45,000 and at 13 pounds it is hardly inconspicuous. Buying the 14.5-60mm lens for those wide angle shots is another $43,000 which easily pushes the price tag over 100 grand for this 3 piece combo. Maybe I should wait a while before placing my order--as in waiting to see if the Wednesday night group hits a super jumbo lottery jackpot. Until that happens, this EOS C300 isn't going to be the right camera for me.

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Let me add a word about the posts from earlier in the week. We all know that I'm my own worst enemy. Think about it--exactly how much stuff in my life is stuff that I HAVE to do? Outside of having to go to work, almost everything else is volunteer work that no one is asking me to do. It does become obsessive and at times it escalates to being unhealthy, or at least I get so tired and stressed to the point that it feels very unhealthy.

Starting with the end of November, I attempted to cover too many things. Taking photos at about a dozen events between Thanksgiving and Christmas, continuing to take the videos, plus all the little extra stuff that pops up during the holidays. That wore me out and was followed by a heavy schedule of videos leading up to the two days of filming at the MS Blues Marathon--a classic case of biting off far more than one can chew which has resulted in a massive backlog of things to do.

It takes these moments of gloom and fatigue for me to realize that I need to pull back and I need to carve out more time for myself. Losing a lot of weight this year and getting back to some form of exercise is going to help a lot in 2012. That's something that is going to happen and it will make a lot of difference. I'll probably also cut down a lot on the recording of out-of-state bands and going to shows in the middle of the week. That would cut my work load by at least a third. I can adjust and maybe even get caught up on some of the backlog. Things are looking brighter on the horizon with plans of a little more balance and a little less insanity in the months to come.

4 Very Different yet Similar Events

2012-01-18T21:20:00.000-06:00

Events coming up this Friday:

--Millsaps basketball games: They are doing a special promotion that would make this perfect as the third game that I promised to take for each basketball team.

--Punk rock show at Sneaky Beans: Not exactly my cup of tea when it comes to music, but an opportunity to record 3 Mississippi bands (plus an Ohio band) that I probably won't get many chances to see.

--House show at Andrew's: 3 singer/songwriters. Two are people I know and like, and one of them made a special request that I come film the show. The third singer is my brother-in-law's nephew.

--Rock show at Hal and Mal's: 2 local bands that I've never recorded plus a duo who are inviting me to their March wedding.

Four very different events coming up in a couple of days, but at the same time they are four events that are almost identical. Each one would be far more work than play for me. Each one would give me a feeling of isolation, being in a crowd where I know a few people but don't really have any friends in the group. By friends, I mean people that know me a little deeper than just as "that guy who always comes to shows and takes videos".

Lately I've missed my old life. The one where I played tennis with one group of friends on Thursday evenings and another group on Sunday afternoon. The life where I had racquetball friends to play with in the mornings and another group that played in the afternoon. The life where I travelled to Dallas more often, went on weekend trips with Gordon and Janet, visited Rusty's family in Texas, had time for movies and reading and going to sporting events as a spectator. I miss being active, I miss being healthy, I miss having a life.

On the other hand, I like to make a contribution to others. I've never met 4 of the musicians who are in the above video. The drummer is someone I have met. He was the bartender at the Ole Tavern this evening when our Wednesday night group got together. He really appreciated that I came to the show last Friday and that I gave him DVDs this evening with videos from the show. Maybe the videos will make a contribution to his life, or maybe just the fact that someone cared to take videos will be positive. I'm not talking about life changing stuff--maybe a good feeling now and the chance to remember good friends and good times a few decades from now when he is closer to my age.

There's a part of me that really wants to go back to my old life. I want to come home from work and have nothing to do instead of coming home and being swamped by more work than I could possibly hope to finish. I want to get back to sports, something that has been a big part of my life since childhood. I want to have deeper friendships, not just people who know who I am and appreciate what I do.

On the other hand, there's a part of me that needs the sense of purpose that comes from the type of things I've been doing for the last 6-7 years. Just watching a sporting event or concert is difficult for me these days when I know that I could be using that time to capture moments that others might enjoy for decades.

My new life is too costly, my old life didn't have enough meaning, and my ability to find a balance is just about non-existent. Sometimes it feels like what I need most is to call timeout and take a 6-8 week break from absolutely everything in my life. The chance of that happening also seems just about non-existent.

I Think...

2012-01-17T21:17:00.000-06:00

...I've burned out on everything. No interest in writing, no interest in photography, and now wondering how much longer I'll have an interest in doing the videos. It has just been too much work for too many years--with a result of leaving me too isolated from what seems like a normal life. Not sure if I could find a way back to my old life and not sure if I could actually pull away from all the things I've been doing for the last 5-6 years. Just know that right now I have no real motivation to keep grinding away at all this stuff.

My Last Haircut Was Last Century

2012-01-15T18:23:00.000-06:00

My last haircut was in the last century--that's a 100% honest statement. At least it's true from the standpoint of getting an official haircut, one where you have someone else cut your hair. (BTW, this obviously isn't my photo, just a representation of someone who maybe hasn't cut their hair since the last century. My hair was once that color, but my long hair was never that long and my body never that thin.)

Many years ago I decided that all I wanted was to have a barber cut my hair short and cut it all the same length. Sometimes that was as short as 3/4 of an inch, sometimes twice that length. It was a simple request and not a problem for the barber I was using at the time. Unfortunately, she moved and I had to find another barber. The old time barber I went to would listen to my request, indicate that he knew exactly what to do, and then would cut my hair in the style that he had been using for everyone for decades. This went on for a year or two and finally I worked up the nerve to buy some hair clippers and cut my own hair. Technically, I haven't gotten a haircut in many years though I do cut my own hair many times every year.

But this post isn't about long hair. It's about making a statement that is technically true while basically being false. A good example would be this story "German Grandmother Lives Money-free and Has Never Been Happier". Now maybe it's completely true that she's never been happier, and technically true that she has lived money free for 16 years, but the reality seems to be something quite different.

In a nutshell, the story is about a woman who has trimmed her worldly possessions to almost nothing and then she barters for things that she has to have like shelter and food. To quote the story, "Schwermer lived nomadically, trading gardening, cleaning, and even therapy sessions for food and a place to sleep." I suspect that there are some good lessons here about what are the true necessities in life, but receiving items in exchange for work is basically the same as receiving money for work and then buying items. Just as cutting your own hair is basically the same as getting a haircut.

I don't want to get bogged down in the German grandmother story and get into how bartering is often a method used to avoid taxes. I'm just using this story as an example of how headlines and sound bites from news outlets seem to be more and more about grabbing eyes and ears instead of accurately reflecting the complete story. Have you noticed this? Another good example is the story "Roy Halladay rescues Amazon native after anaconda attack". A great headline that got me to read the story. Turns out the snake was long gone when Halladay and his party arrived--they just towed the guy and his boat back to his home.

These stories aren't exactly earth shaking news events, but we do have a lot of political news coming up this year and those will be stories that do make a difference. Regardless of who you support and what you believe, take the time to read those stories from start to finish. Take the time to hear the story from multiple points of view. Headlines don't always reflect the gist of the story, and the first half of the story is often partially refuted by the second half. News networks often take a certain slant to appeal to their core audience. Despite all of the sources we now have for news, sometimes it feels like discovering the truth is harder than ever.

Patrick Harkins: "I Wanna Love Somebody Like You"

2012-01-12T23:41:00.001-06:00

Here's a video Patrick Harkins' video from the 2012 MS Blues Marathon that shows some evolution in my video recording style. Who says you can't teach an old dog a new trick?

Patrick Harkins has played the national anthem prior to the 7 a.m. start of the marathon for the last few years (see video below). Since he is already there and warmed up, he then moves over from playing the national anthem at the starting line to playing the 7-8 time slot on the main stage. That's not exactly a prime time for a big crowd.

Truthfully, a small crowd or no crowd is usually what I prefer since it cuts down on the crowd noise and people getting in front of the camera. Lately I've realized that trying to keep the crowd totally out of the picture is probably the wrong thing to do. This video is one of the few times where I've turned away from the stage and left the singer totally out of the picture. That's a technique I'll try to use more often in the future.

In this case some kids were posing in front of the stage prior to the start of the 8 p.m. fun run. Normally this would have bugged the heck out of me with worries that their noise was going to bleed into the audio. This time I decided to film the sideshow and it makes the video much better. Film of the kids posing, parents arranging the kids in the right order, a wall of parents taking photos with their cell phones--it's the things everyone else including Patrick was watching, so why not include it in the video?

The other big thing I've been doing is closer closeups. This tight cropping is something I first noticed in a Leonard Cohen documentary and it seemed like something I should try. Sometimes these closeups result in the singer bobbing and weaving their way totally out of frame, but they'll come back to the microphone when it's time for the next line. Closeups of hands and items on stage are also creeping into my videos. It doesn't always have to be about the face of the musicians.

I guess the bottom line to all this isn't really about how to take a better video. It's about the need to always keep your eyes and mind open for ways to improve on what you are doing. You don't have to chase after the crowd by copying everything--like I have no plans to do any of that rotating the camera crap--but observing and incorporating bits and pieces of another's style is a great way of improving your own product. If you don't learn new tricks, then you quickly become an old dog.

And now, here's that video of Patrick playing the national anthem--capturing this footage for Patrick made it worthwhile to get up so early on Saturday after a late Friday night:

I Can Name That Tune in...

2012-01-09T20:38:00.000-06:00

Do you remember the game show "Name That Tune"? The object was to be able to name tunes after hearing just a snippet of the music. The big finale was when the two contestants "bid" for the opportunity to name the final tune. Contestant "A" might say, "I can name that tune in 6 notes" then Contestant "B" would usually counter with "I can name that tune in 5 notes", etc. It didn't take much to entertain America back in those days. Sadly, I think it takes even less to entertain America today.

Well, I mention "Name That Tune" because it's a game that I play often. Trying to come up with correct song titles for my videos is the most bothersome part of my project. Sometimes it is downright impossible.

The first option would be to get the musicians to provide the song titles. That's a simple solution you might say, unless you have discovered first hand like I have that getting in touch with a musician is difficult, getting a timely response back is a rarity. I know how busy everyone gets so maybe hoping for a timely response is unrealistic. That's too bad because it sure would make my life easier.

Often I skip the part about trying to get in touch with the musicians, instead opting to go on an internet scavenger hunt in search of the titles. This process starts out with me listening to all the videos and writing down key phrases from the beginning of each song. With that information in hand, I start my search:

---First, I search the song lyrics websites on the internet to see if the song is a cover of a nationally known song. That's how I found the title "St. James Infirmary Blues" which is the song in the video above.

---If the lyrics search turns up nothing, then it is on to a variety of websites. Go to YouTube and listen to the songs already posted for the artist. Check out MySpace, Reverbnation, and facebook for songs the band might have posted. Look for the band's CDs or music downloads on Bandcamp, Amazon, CDBaby, or maybe some obscure local label. If you can find a site with the band's CD, then you have to listen to the samples of all the songs in hopes of finding some that match the lyrics from your videos.

As you can imagine, this process is time consuming and the success rate is rarely 100%. Sometimes I just make up a song title that sounds feasible, sometimes I just go with a basic YouTube description like "The Dirty Bugs playing at Sneaky Beans". On weekends like this past one when I record 9 sets and 100+ songs, this search for titles becomes a real nightmare. On weekends when I only record 3-5 sets, it just becomes a real pain in the ass. And with my whining now completed for this evening, I go off in search of song title for Terry "Harmonica" Bean. That should keep me occupied during most of the LSU-Alabama game this evening.

Reflections from a Musician

2012-01-08T16:24:00.001-06:00

While many come to the MS Blues Marathon in Jackson to test their mental and physical toughness against a 13.1 or 26.2 mile course, I look forward to the annual event because of the music. Starting late Friday morning and ending shortly after noon on Saturday, I was at all 9 performances and ended up with over 100 videos. Unfortunately, the audience at most times was small to non-existent. What a pity.

My main objective was taking videos, but there were a handful of photos taken during the day Friday. Above is a close-up of Jimmy "Duck" Holmes (you can click on the image to bring up a bigger version). You can see in the reflection that there are only a handful of chairs set up in front of the stage and most appear to be empty. I'm over there on the left taking the photo and a few others are listening from a distance. Most are milling around at the various Expo booths, possibly listening to the extent that one listens to piped in music. This is such a missed opportunity for anyone with an interest in hearing the blues.

Below is one of the Jimmy "Duck" Holmes videos from Friday. During the first 10 seconds of the video there is a link you can click to get to the 9 video playlist from his set. I hope some of you will bring up that playlist and listen to the songs--the playlists make listening an option for those without the time or interest to watch the videos. Maybe you'll like what you hear and maybe next year you'll check out the live performances. All the shows are free and I'm sure that all the musicians would appreciate your support.

MS Blues Marathon Weekend

2012-01-05T19:16:00.001-06:00

A year ago I took off from work on Friday to shoot photos of the musicians playing at the 2011 MS Blues Marathon Expo. First up that day was Jimmy "Duck" Holmes from Bentonia, MS (pictured here) and I arrived about half way through his set. He was great, and in my opinion I took some great photos.

I continued to take photos of the acts that followed, but with each one I started running out of shots to take. At some point, somewhat as a whim, I decided to take a few videos with my point-and-shoot pocket camera. My expectations were low, far lower than the final results. Here's one of the videos with Cadillac John Nolden on vocals with Bill Abel on guitar:

The videos from that day are what motivated me to switch from taking photos to videos at concerts. It's hard to believe that from this humble beginning of less than 10 videos one year ago, my collection of videos has now grown to about 1,500. I plan on adding quite a bit to that collection tomorrow and Saturday.

Taking videos is something I'm looking forward to, but what about taking photos? My friend Katie is running again this year and she sent me an email today asking if I'd be taking action shots this year. I'm leaning strongly towards skipping the photography because I've had very bad luck with the organizers of the marathon. I gave them permission to use one of my photos for a state government publication. Instead of getting the photo credit as promised, the publication gave the credit to "Blue Cross, Blue Shield", the main sponsor of the event. Then there were the four photos published in Living Blues magazine. Photo credit for those went to the marathon director since he was the one who sent in the photos. Not surprisingly, I didn't share my photos with the marathon organizers last year nor would I share them this year. If I'm not planning to share the photos, then there's not much motivation to take them.

Well, there is the motivation of taking photos of friends like Katie. I'm considering going out on Saturday with my best point-and-shoot camera and taking photos. I'll be able to get good action photos with that camera, especially once the sun gets up just a little. That's probably what I'll do, roam around with my small camera and hopefully spot friends here and there along the race course and at the finish. That sounds like a plan that I can live with.

Gone in a Flash

2012-01-04T20:08:00.001-06:00

I had never heard of the blog "This Wild Idea" until the creator of the blog was robbed in Jackson, MS.

The header on his blog reads, "365 Days Traversing America Telling the Stories of Everyday People". The writer/photographer was about halfway through his journey when someone broke into his truck on Millsaps Avenue in Jackson and stole the needed tools for his project. Unfortunately, those items have not been recovered and the writer is trying to get enough donations to replace the equipment. On a "This Wild Idea Help page", the following explanation is given:

"On New Years Eve, $6000 in gear (and damage) was taken from my truck. Most heart breaking is that these folks found both of my external drives. Every single image created for the past 5+ months was lost.

After spending 3 days hitting in the streets - passing out flyers, talking to the Police, knocking on doors, going to every pawn shop, scouring Craigslist...we have to move on!

My goal is to raise $2000 to get moving again! This will cover a laptop, external + cloud storage, audio recorder, and the lens. Thankfully I have a good friend lending me a Canon 5D Mark II for the project.

Thanks so much for the support ya'll"

You should know what caught my eye in the above: "Every single image created for the past 5+ months was lost." That's a greater loss than the $6,000 of damage and theft. Several years ago I had a PC that didn't have a very large hard drive so most of my photos were stored on two external hard drives. One complete set of photos kept at the house and one complete set kept at the office. Without warning, one of the hard drives went bad and I realized that just about every digital photo I had ever taken was suddenly just one hard drive crash away from being non-existent. It was a very sick feeling.

Fortunately, I was able to copy my one good set of photos to a new external hard drive--and then I copied them again to a third drive. My policy now is to always have at least three copies of everything and always have them stored in at least two different locations.

And what about you? Do you have a lot of important photos and documents just one hard drive crash away from being non-existent? External hard drives are inexpensive and they are so easy to use. Just plug one into a USB port on your computer and then copy and paste the files to the external device. Once you have the backup done, store the drive in a different location. If you place any sort of value on these various items, I would suggest making another backup copy for an added layer of security.

By the way, this is something to keep in mind at the work place as well as with your personal things. Losing files at work can have very serious consequences as with this story that you might have seen: Stenographer Error Gives Convicted Florida Murderer New Trial. The stenographer had the trial transcript on her computer, a virus destroyed the file to the point where the transcript couldn't be recovered. No backup copy--now the stenographer has no job--and don't be surprised if her employers get hit with with a big law suite because of the mental anguish caused by having the retrial.

Make backups and keep copies in separate locations--you'll be glad you did.

Food as Fuel Diet

2012-01-03T06:14:00.000-06:00

I really haven't had the urge to write in recent days so I'm reposting something from my new "diet" blog. I'm trying to look at it as a lifestyle change and not really a diet. Maybe that's just playing with words, but there feels like a difference to me. Anyway, here's the post from that other blog and we'll see if this approach has better results than my diets of the past:

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Food as Fuel

What if a person viewed food as simply a fuel needed by the body? A necessary energy source like a car needing gasoline or a refrigerator needing electricity in order to operate. What if we could get away from all of the non-fuel related reasons that we eat? That would be more about changing a fundamental lifestyle rather than dieting.

The general concept of dieting hasn't worked for me over the last 5 years. It's unlikely that it will work for me over the next 5-20 years. My dieting has been like politicians attacking the problem of the national debt. Any plan that is proposed ends up having so many loopholes that failure is almost built into the plan.

My dieting loopholes are the usual ones. Sometimes after working hard on a project I snack because I "deserve a reward". Sometimes I'm really tired at work and I have to eat candy to get a "quick pick me up". When we have parties at work, I have to eat "to be social". When people at work bring cookies, donuts, a cake, and such things for their co-workers, I have to eat to "be polite". On Wednesday night I need to drink a few beers to "be one of the guys". So much of my eating centers around reasons other than providing needed fuel to power my body.

Now I'm not saying that my dieting plans have ever officially contained any of the above loopholes. It's just that politicians always have an emergency spending provision in their budget plans and I guess every person on a diet tends to include an emergency eating provision. You know, for situations where one deserves a reward, needs a pick me up, is being social or polite, etc. Those situations happen all the time and it doesn't take long before one's willpower starts to crumble.

What I need is a more definitive line in the sand when it comes to food. Something that divides various foods and various eating situations into right or wrong. I need to take out all this greyness that seems to come when one tries to decide what and when to eat. For example, hot pockets and frozen pizzas are mainstays in my food choices and I can make them fit into a sub-2,000 calorie day, but are they very good when it comes to fueling the body? Not as good as some other food choices that I need to switch to. And if someone brings cookies to the office tomorrow to start off the New Year right, do I really need to sacrifice my health for 5 minutes of pleasure and supposedly to be polite? I don't think so. After finishing this blog post, would the bag of popcorn that I'm tempted to fix be about needing fuel or simply wanting 10 minutes of eating pleasure? Yeah, maybe I should pass on the popcorn.

This idea isn't really as drastic as it sounds. Is it a big sacrifice to cut candy out of my life? Not really, and the benefits of such a move would far outweigh the lost minutes of pleasure. Is it a big deal to switch over from frozen pizzas to various fruits and vegetables that I like? That's not much of a sacrifice. If I don't eat cookies on Tuesday, will my life be worse on Wednesday because of my restraint? No, actually my life on Wednesday will probably be better if I refrain from eating cookies on Tuesday.

Taking a food as fuel approach in life is a lifestyle change I can accept. It's not as much fun as the food for pleasure approach, but then again, being 65 pounds overweight isn't exactly a fun way to live a life. Possibly developing serious health issues related to excessive weight isn't a very fun prospect for the future. Having just past my 60th birthday, I want to turn back the clock a couple of decades and I want to remain very active and healthy for a couple of decades to come. This change in my life seems like the only realistic way of making that happen. It's a change I have to make.

12 Stupid Things to Avoid

2012-01-02T09:03:00.000-06:00

I pay attention when one of my most conservative friends on facebook has positive things to say about a Huffington Post article. It must be words of wisdom that apply to everyone. The article that he referenced is 12 Really Stupid Things I Never Want to Do Again by Rev. James Martin, S.J. After reading this article I'm tempted to check out some of Rev. Martin's books (which can be found at this Amazon link).

Now as we all know, sometimes links on the internet stop working after a bit of time. Because of that, and because some people might not see this post until months from now, I'm going to add a cut-and-paste of the article below. Personally, I would suggest that you use the link above to read the story if the link is working. You might discover some interesting things in connection to the article if you go to the actual source of the article.

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12 Really Stupid Things I Never Want To Do Again
by Rev. James Martin, S.J.
(a copy of a 12/29/11 article on the Huffington Post)

Last year I listed 12 things I knew at age 50 that I wish I had known at 25. Now I'm a year older. And if I'm not wiser, at least I'm a bit more experienced. So here are 12 really stupid things I've done that I never want to do again. Maybe you've done some of them, too. But I'll bet we'd both be happier if we didn't...

1. Compare. Ever heard the saying "Compare and despair"? Comparing yourself to someone else usually means that you imagine the other person is better off, more satisfied -- in a word, happier. But here's the problem: We end up comparing what we know about our life, which is a mixed bag of good and bad, with a fantasy of someone else's supposedly "perfect" life. Why do we do this? Because we know all about our own problems, but other people's problems are harder to see. As a result, our real life always loses out. That leads to despair. Besides, there's probably someone comparing his or her life to your supposedly perfect one -- which shows you how ridiculous it all is.

2. "Should" on Yourself. It's devilishly easy to imagine yourself making a choice that would have taken you to a different place in your life. I should have married this person; I should have taken that job; I should have moved; I should have blah, blah, blah. This is called "shoulding all over yourself." (Say it aloud and the negative meaning becomes clearer.) Reflecting on our choices is an important way to grow, but you can't live your real life if you're busy living in your "should have" life. You'll end up torturing yourself. Jesus of Nazareth once said you can't serve two masters. You can't live two lives either.

3. Get People to Like You. I spent all of my teens, most of my 20s, a great deal of my 30s and too much of my 40s trying to get people to like me. But forcing people's affection rarely works. Plus, it takes too much energy to tailor yourself to what you think people will like (which is impossible to figure out anyway). Your true friends like you already. Be open to change and growth by all means; but treasure friends who love you for who you are. St. Francis de Sales, a lighthearted 17th-century saint, once said: "Be who you are and be that perfectly well."

4. Interrupt. We all think we're good listeners. We're not. Many of us are absolutely terrible listeners, impatiently waiting for our turn to speak, confident that our next utterance is the solution to everyone's problems or the most interesting of all the commentary yet offered. But you can't contribute intelligently to any conversation if you're not listening what the other person is saying. Interrupting someone says, "I have no interest in even letting you finish your thought." As my sister tells her children, you have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

5. Worry About How You Look. I cut myself shaving: Is the blood still showing? I have a zit: Is it getting bigger or going away? I need a haircut: Should I get one today or tomorrow? Are these pants too short? Too long? Who cares? Sure, you need to look presentable for your job and a decent appearance is a sign of respect to those around you. But if your friends are overly concerned about your clothes, and judge you on that basis, they may not be the best friends for you. And who in their right mind cares what strangers think about your clothes, unless you're a fashion model? Spend less time thinking about your outside and more about your inside.

6. Work Constantly. We are immersed in a culture of productivity, which says that we are what we do. That's why the first question out of someone's mouth upon meeting a stranger is often "So what do you do?" We also measure ourselves by how much money we have, or make. Thus, discussions about salary are a big taboo. You can ask someone about their facelift or their divorce, but not what they earn. Why? Because it's the default measure of worth, and it ruthlessly places people on a social ladder. If someone makes more than we do, we may feel "less than." Look, everyone's got to work. But if value is gauged by wealth, then when we make less, we feel less valuable as human beings, which is tragic. Nelson Mandela didn't make much money when he was imprisoned in South Africa; was he less valuable? Plus, if we are what we do, when we're not working we're nothing. This kind of thinking creates a skewed measure of "value." Stop driving yourself nuts with the trap of constant work.

7. Fail to Give People a Break. Hey, surly person behind the drugstore counter: Why didn't you say thanks when you handed me my change? Hey, barista, why are you being so rude? Stop and think. Maybe it's because they're underpaid; they hate their low-paying job; their mother is dying. Remember that behind those frowning faces are full lives. Remember too, that all these people all beloved creatures of God, with their own human dignity, and holy in their own way -- yes, holy. When the Book of Genesis said that God looked at everything and said, "It was good," he meant people, too. Even the angry barista. Give them their dignity by giving them a break.

8. Complain About Minor Illnesses. If you've got a serious or chronic illness, you need to share your struggles and frustrations with your physician, with friends and family, or even a therapist. You need support. But do you have a cold that has hung on for days and makes you phlegmy? When you bend over like this does your back ache because you pulled a muscle in the gym? No one really wants to hear about minor illnesses. Everyone gets sick, for Pete's sake. In the words of the great prophets, suck it up.

9. Be a Jerk. You're tired. You're rushed. You've got a cold. You're late. You're angry about something your boss said. Yes, you're miserable. That doesn't mean you have to be a jerk to everyone else. It really doesn't. Sure, share your frustrations and struggles with close friends, but don't make everyone else's life more miserable by passing on your misery. Once, I joked to a friend, "Boy, my life is such a cross!" "Yes," he said, "But for you or others?"

10. Avoid Doing the Right Thing. It's no fun to call a friend who is in a bad mood because she's lost her job. It's no fun to take responsibility for making a mistake. It's no fun to speak out against racism, sexism or homophobia and stand up for those being mocked. It's not fun, it takes effort; but you know it's the right thing to do. Do it anyway. If you don't, you'll feel terrible about yourself, and that's really no fun.

11. Make Fun of People. Nothing brings me lower than a few minutes of mocking another person. (Particularly if the person is not present.) But the snappy putdown has a high value in our culture, and famous snubs (say, of one famous writer to another) are repeated, and treasured like beautiful jewels. Much of our current political climate consists of politicians mocking people in the other party. (That's been a big help in this country, hasn't it?) Malicious speech is an easy way to wound. If you feel like you're powerless against badmouthing someone, ask yourself three questions when it comes to commenting on another: Is it kind? Is it necessary? Is it true?

12. Be Hard on Yourself. One of my Jesuit mentors used to say, "Be easy with yourself, Jim." If you're reading this list, and taking it at all seriously, you may be beating yourself up about stupid things that you've done in the past. (Believe me, my list is just as long as yours.) But you also want to change yourself, which is good. So be careful to "trust in the slow work of God," as the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin used to say. (He was also a paleontologist, so he knew about things moving really slowly.) Or if you don't believe in God, trust in slow work, period.

If you ever get discouraged about your rate of change, just think about trees -- yes, trees. In the summer they're green. In the fall they're red. And no one sees them change.

(James Martin, SJ is a Jesuit priest, culture editor of America and author of "Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life.")

Crocodile Attacks Elephants (and being heard over the noise)

2011-12-31T10:51:00.001-06:00

Hey, wait a second--wasn't I suppose to be editing photos and/or cleaning up the duplex this morning? Yes I was, but it's quite natural that I ended up watching a crocodile vs. elephants video.

You see, I brought up Yahoo to check my mail and the featured news story was a video about Beachgoers awed as orca attacks sharks. Well really now, how could I not click on that? That video/story wasn't so great, but towards the end of the story they referenced a video about "orca kills a 12-foot great white shark". In for a penny, in for a pound--naturally I had to check out that video. I'm sure many of the 20,000,000+ viewers were fairly disappointed like me by this highly edited and chopped up video.

At this point the recommended videos enlightened me to the world of animal fighting videos. Not like dog fights or cock fights, but videos of encounters in the wild that were captured on videos or photos. Want to see a gorilla fight a leopard, a hippo destroy the pride of a lion pride, a python against an alligator? Millions of viewers have already beaten you to the punch by checking out the videos on YouTube.

Over 9,000,000 have watched the photo slideshow of the crocodile and the elephants. It's just 6-8 photos, some text screens telling the story of this brief encounter (no blood, no deaths), and a soundtrack of "Why Does My Heart Feel so Bad" by Moby. Not much to work with from an event that lasted about 15 seconds, but someone was able to package and market these few photos in a way that has generated 9,000,000 YouTube hits over the last year and maybe millions of other hits on other websites.

That's where this post actually ties in with my earlier post of the day about the world being so tightly connected by the internet. With so much content available, how does one go from being background noise ignored by all to being content noticed by many? How does a musician go about generating the interest needed to become a success? How does a writer generate the buzz needed to be read by more than a few friends and family? The answers to questions like that are many, and based on the hit counts from my blogs and videos, I don't really know any of the answers. I just know that businesses and individuals with a need to be notice had better pay attention to what it takes in today's world to get notice. Being very good or even being the best is often not good enough for success in an era where views have tremendous value, maybe as much or more value than quality.

(PS--If you love baby elephants, share this blog post on your facebook page!!! Okay, that was sort of a joke, but it's exactly what some people do in an attempt to send their work viral. I'm not really that much into self-promotion so don't feel like you have to share this on facebook.) (but really, if you want to share it, that would be okay by me--and maybe you could check out my YouTube page and like my videos--no, no, no--I just got carried away for a minute. Carry on with your life and I'll stick with being in that 99% that is just background noise.)

Year in Review Post--Part 1

2011-12-31T07:30:00.002-06:00

As is my habit, facebook was the first thing I checked this morning on the computer. A link to this Google video review of 2011 was posted by one of my friends.

As far as a year in review presentation, this one is fairly weak. Too much hyping of Google, not enough review. However, the video is a stunning reminder of just how small the world has become. In one portion of the video there is an image of a globe and the "viewer" clicks on various locations around the world to bring up snippets of footage covering major stories of 2011.

This is what we on the internet have come to expect as the norm. We expect instant access to any news event any where in the world. We expect to be able to contact people in all corners of the globe immediately, by email, by text, by instant messaging, or even in face-to-face conversations. This isn't a new development that occurred in 2011, but it is very much our accepted way of life as we close out this year. And the communication immediacy is only going to get faster and faster.

Friday I was at a basketball game watching Millsaps College play Rust College. Both of this teams had lost in their opening game of a small local tournament. I asked the two guys near me how bad Belhaven had beaten Rust the day before. One said about 10 points, the other thought it was closer to 30. In a move that looked instinctive, one reached in his pocket for a smart phone and less than a minute later we knew the exact score of the Rust vs Belhaven ballgame. A similar scenario played out Friday night when I asked friends at a concert if MS State had won their bowl game. They didn't know, but a smart phone gave us the answer in well under a minute.

Think about this. In 1951, the year of my birth, people got their news in various forms of print, in occasional news programs on the radio, and by seeing news reels prior to watching a movie at the local theatre. The television industry was in its infancy and most families didn't own a television set until the mid-1950's. You can imagine just how quickly general awareness dropped for the typical person as the subject matter expanded from local to statewide to regional to nationwide and finally to global. The communication explosion from my birth year to now might be the most amazing change of my lifetime.

As you might have noticed, this isn't really much of a year in review post. I might get in another post today or tomorrow, something looking back at 2011 or looking forward to 2012. OR, I might really buckle down and get a lot of things done over the next 3 days like editing photos, bringing some organization to my duplex, or matching up months of credit card bills with the statements I've paid. So many things to do, so little time and motivation to do them. In case I don't get back to posting for a few days, let me take this time to thank everyone who kept up with the blog this year and I hope all of you have a very successful and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Music Tonight

2011-12-29T18:40:00.000-06:00

There are two options for music this evening: (1) a really great show at Hal and Mal's, and (2) a questionable high school crowd show at Sneaky Beans.

The show at Hal and Mal's opens up with the Bailey Brothers from Jackson, then follows up with Star and Micey from Memphis, and concludes with Jimbo Mathus and the Tri-State Coalition. I really like all three--but I'm not going to the show. The Bailey Brothers would like seeing me there taking videos, Star and Micey probably wouldn't care one way or the other, and Jimbo Mathus seems to dislike the idea of me filming and posting anything from their show. Not that I can blame him on that since they have plenty of very good videos already on YouTube.

The show at Sneaky Beans is somewhat of a mystery. I took videos of one of the band two weeks ago and I'm sort of ho-hum about taking more videos of them. The other two bands have absolutely no information posted on facebook, myspace, or any of the other locations where bands post. Don't know what to make of that. This is a concert that I would probably skip 9 out of 10 times, but I'll be going there tonight. That's because I have a new camcorder and a new microphone and I want to test them out. I'd rather screw up tonight than mess up next week when I'm filming at the MS Blues Marathon. And who knows, maybe one of the mystery bands will surprise me. We'll find out in about an hour.

What is Good Sportsmanship?

2011-12-27T20:42:00.001-06:00

Christmas was Sunday and the Saints played on Monday, so this image is sort of timel--but not really. It was interesting to see a few stories this morning questioning the sportsmanship of Drew Brees passing for a touchdown late in yesterday's game, a short drive that gave Brees the record for most passing yards in a regular season.

To recap the situation, New Orleans was leading Atlanta 38-16, there was 5:08 left in the game, the Saints had just taken possession of the ball on the Atlanta 33, and Brees needed 30 more passing yards to break the record. New Orleans then passed on 5 out of 6 plays (fortunately the rushing play only gained 1 yard) and Brees got the record while also running up the score on Atlanta.
Was this poor sportsmanship? Given the circumstance, I don't think so. I doubt that any of the Saints fans in the Superdome thought it was poor sportsmanship. They had come to the game with hopes of seeing Brees break the record and they got what they wanted.

However, what if things had been different? Suppose the New England Patriots had been playing instead of Atlanta, and the Patriots had a 38-16 lead late in the game with Tom Brady within striking distance of the record. Would it have been poor sportsmanship for Tom Brady to go for the record in that situation? My guess is that most of the fans in the Superdome would have been outraged at the lack of class shown by New England and Brady if he had passed for a late touchdown.

In sports and a lot of other areas in life, our viewpoint regarding what is acceptable and unacceptable often depends on whether we are are on the "winning" side or the "losing" side. That's a reality we are going to see a lot during this year leading up to the next national election.

UPDATE: After writing this post I went to facebook and saw this facebook event advertising a New Year's Eve party. The photos of the band are mine and I don't think I've ever given them out to anyone. They have been posted in one of my photo albums on the internet and apparently they were copied and used without my permission. That's sort of irritating--but naturally it is okay that I copied and used the above Santa Saints image without bothering to ask anyone for permission!

Many photos taken, many photos to edit

2011-12-26T21:19:00.000-06:00

A few days ago I thought that Monday would be spent editing photos. I have batches from at least six events, maybe one or two more. There are lots of good photos that people want to see, photos like this one of my cousin and his grandson. All those people are going to have to wait a few days.

There's just a need for a breather from photography. A chance to catch my breathe before diving back in for the far more time consuming task of editing the photos. Of course, a break from photography still leaves plenty of other tasks to be done. Cleaning up the kitchen and paying my end of month bills took up some time today, and then most of the remaining time was spent working on videos.

There was a lot of time spent reviving my Jackson MS Music blog. That site has been dormant for a couple of months and it really needs to be active in order to get the maximum exposure for the Jackson bands. Maximum exposure for my videos as well, but I don't really see much gain in getting more exposure for me. Usually that just means more work. Anyway, I now have about 7 posts ready to go so at least that's one task done for the week to come.

Time was also spent this afternoon burning DVDs of past shows. That's work I could do while watching episodes of the British television show "Doc Martin". My friends David and Suzy gave me a DVD set of the entire series as a birthday gift and I've enjoyed it quite a bit. My life isn't all work, just too much work, and it was nice to get in some video watching today while burning the DVDs. Watching the Saints game this evening and falling asleep during the second half would be a great ending for the day. Since I can't pick up any television stations at the duplex, I guess that falling asleep to the radio broadcast will have to do. This is one of those rare times when I really do miss television.

Oh well, a few more DVDs to burn and then hopefully I'll fall asleep while the Saints are on their way to another victory.

Baby Photos of Max Huston

2011-12-22T22:44:00.000-06:00

Would you rather I write something or would you prefer cute baby photos? That's what I thought. Here are photos of Max Huston Ezelle, the son of Travis and Leslie. I've got dozens of photos from a luncheon held last Sunday after Max was christened. Now to find the time and mental push I need to edit the photos--it will get done sometime between Saturday and Monday. In the meantime, here are three samples from the batch:

Two more parties and taking photos

2011-12-21T22:29:00.000-06:00

Surprise, surprise, surprise--I'm tired. What else is new and how many times will you folks have to hear me complain about being tired? I was at two parties this evening and took 700 photos. Part of the taking so many photos is because I don't use a flash so I often taken 4-5 shots in rapid sucession.

Now I've got about 5 batches of photos that need immediate editing and maybe I'll take photos Friday night. I will defintely take videos Friday night and photos Saturday evening and Sunday. It's a lot of work and it can be draining, but there's something that would make my life worse. That something would be if I didn't take photos and videos. Missing opportunities to capture Josh Hailey licking Scott Albert Johnson's bald head--now that would be tragic. Missing opportunities to take good photos of my friends and family would also be something that I regret. Missing opportunities to document local musicians living there dreams wouldn't make me happy. I choose to do what I do. It just gets overwhelming at times. That's my fault but I'd rather err on the side of trying to do too much than failing to do enough.

A Photo from Slimmer Days

2011-12-21T06:18:00.000-06:00

If I were the crying type, I'd probably cry a lot.

This photo was taken somewhere between 1990 and maybe 2000. I'll have to go back and look it up in our company scrapbooks to get an exact date. I've still got that belt--couldn't even get it close to hooking in the first notch now.

I saw this photo while editing the batch of photos that I took at a co-worker's retirement party. Those should have been completed and given to the former co-worker on Monday. Looks like the Tuesday after Christmas might be the best that I do on that.

How did I let this happen? My weight and fitness level getting so far out of control. Likewise, how did I let myself get so far behind on so many different things? Can I find a way to get this all under control? I don't think so. I will not ever catch up or get healthy. That's starting to become my reality.

El Obo and Misc Items in the News

2011-12-19T18:52:00.000-06:00

Susan, a friend and blog reader, is a fan of singer Jesse Coppenbarger of Colour Revolt fame. Jesse has a side project named "El Obo" where he plays material that doesn't fit in with Colour Revolt's style. This "El Obo" video was shot Saturday evening at the 9th Annual Esperanza Plantation Holiday Showcase.

Unfortunately, Susan is currently visiting family members who live in an internet wasteland so she'll have to watch the video at a later date. Maybe some of you will want to watch it now.

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Let's go with a few small items here and then I'll spend some time editing photos this evening:

James Franco's NYU Professor Fired for Giving Actor a Bad Grade?: Oh my! James Franco received a "D" in the class "Directing the Actor". That's almost as embarrassing as me receiving an "F" in high school French (in case you didn't know, my mother is from Belgium and was teaching college French back during my high school years). Apparently Franco thought he deserved a good grade despite missing 12 of the 14 classes. Who does he think he is, a star football player?

Chaz Bono and Fiancee Call Off Engagement: Well, girls--Chaz is back on the market. Or is that well, guys--Chaz is back on the market. I have trouble keeping up with my transgender reality stars.

“Super memory” pill–and possibly an Alzheimer’s cure–could be around the corner: This will be interesting. Suppose this pill comes on the market in 5-10 years and it really works. Will you have to prove that your memory is diminished before getting a prescription for the drug? Or will the drug become so common that it is sold over the counter like those 5-hour energy drinks? I have a feeling that I'll need some of this medication in the future so hopefully they will fast-track this medicine.

The 30 Most Important Cats Of 2011: I'm not so sure that these are the 30 most important cats of 2011, but cat lovers should find this link entertaining. Plenty of videos to watch if you have the time--I did not.

Too Many Irons in the Fire

2011-12-18T21:45:00.000-06:00

I don't like multi-tasking. My preference it to do one project at a time, going from start to finish and then that item is neatly wrapped up and completed. Trying to handle many projects at the same time tends to leave me a little off kilter, not knowing what needs to be done next because there are always several things that need to be done next.

On Friday I took photos at a retirement luncheon given at work. It was a very nice affair honoring a wonderful lady who had been with the company for 36 years. I'll miss her. The photos turned out fine. I've gone through them but haven't edited them because there were other projects that grabbed my attention.

Friday night I shot videos at Sneaky Beans. Three bands played, my favorite being the Atlanta band Slowriter (see the video above). It's actually a one man project and he gets a few other musicians to join him when doing a live performance. I've been in touch with this musician and he thinks the videos look great--but he didn't provide me with a mailing address so maybe they don't look great enough for him to want copies.

The other two bands on Friday were new to me. A trio of high school kids from Brandon opened up the night and the closing act was a band from Hattiesburg. I filmed all three bands while standing three rungs up on a step-ladder so I could shoot over the crowd. I'm getting too old for that sort of thing.

Saturday was my 60th birthday. I received a lot of very nice comments on facebook and numerous phone calls. That was a much appreciated thing, but the fact that I turned 60 didn't really phase me one way or the other. Saturday evening was spent at a party where I was supposedly the photographer. That's something I volunteer to do, but my effort this time was half-hearted. Most people like to see photos of themselves, but don't like to have their picture taken. Some nights I just don't have the mental toughness it takes to interrupt people and ask them to pose for a photo.

After that party I went to shoot videos at a big concert being held at the old Capri Theatre. Those turned out great, but I was on my feet from about 9:30 till the last song of the night finished at 1:30. Then I was up till 3:15 transferring the videos from the camcorder to my computer and also checking out how they turned out. I shot videos of 4 bands, two that are new to me and two that are loaded with people that I consider friends (one of those videos is below). One of the blog readers will be thrilled to know that Jesse Coppenbarger was one of the 4 bands.

Sunday's big event was the Christening Ceremony for my grand-nephew Max, the son of Travis and Leslie. That went great and Travis and Leslie had a bunch of people over after church for lunch--which was also great. I took photos--and you guessed it, they turned out great--but I don't have the energy to download them from the camera and start the editing process. It's been a very productive weekend and a very, very tiring weekend. With a party on Wednesday, another on Friday, a concert to film later Friday night, and then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I'm not sure when I'll get caught up with my December activities. It's the most hectic time of the year.

Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts

2011-12-15T22:01:00.000-06:00

I've been working this evening on updating YouTube descriptions and then putting together playlists. Each step doesn't take very long, but there are always a lot of videos and that means a lot of steps.

Was going to write tonight about turning 60 in a couple of days and about a co-worker who retired today after 39 years at the company. This co-worker has reservations about quitting work--I have day dreams about how great it will be when I am able to retire. Not that I dislike my job or company, but there are just so many other things that I would like to do. It's not where I work that bothers me, it's the fact that I'm still working.

Well anyway, it's too late to write about that so let me just do a cut-and-paste about the story reference in the subject line of this post. It's a much better story than anything I could have written about this evening:

Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts
By MARGERY A. BECK

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children.

He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn't be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the counter.

"She told him, 'No, I'm paying for it,'" recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in Indianapolis. "He just stood there and looked at her and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn't, and that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears."

At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers' layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn't afford, especially toys and children's clothes set aside by impoverished parents.

Before she left the store Tuesday evening, the Indianapolis woman in her mid-40s had paid the layaway orders for as many as 50 people. On the way out, she handed out $50 bills and paid for two carts of toys for a woman in line at the cash register.

"She was doing it in the memory of her husband who had just died, and she said she wasn't going to be able to spend it and wanted to make people happy with it," Deppe said. The woman did not identify herself and only asked people to "remember Ben," an apparent reference to her husband.

Deppe, who said she's worked in retail for 40 years, had never seen anything like it. "It was like an angel fell out of the sky and appeared in our store," she said.

Most of the donors have done their giving secretly.

Dona Bremser, an Omaha nurse, was at work when a Kmart employee called to tell her that someone had paid off the $70 balance of her layaway account, which held nearly $200 in toys for her 4-year-old son.

"I was speechless," Bremser said. "It made me believe in Christmas again."
Dozens of other customers have received similar calls in Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana and Montana.

The benefactors generally ask to help families who are squirreling away items for young children. They often pay a portion of the balance, usually all but a few dollars or cents so the layaway order stays in the store's system.

The phenomenon seems to have begun in Michigan before spreading, Kmart executives said. "It is honestly being driven by people wanting to do a good deed at this time of the year," said Salima Yala, Kmart's division vice president for layaway.

The good Samaritans seem to be visiting mainly Kmart stores, though a Wal-Mart spokesman said a few of his stores in Joplin, Mo., and Chicago have also seen some layaway accounts paid off.

Kmart representatives say they did nothing to instigate the secret Santas or spread word of the generosity. But it's happening as the company struggles to compete with chains such as Wal-Mart and Target.

Kmart may be the focus of layaway generosity, Yala said, because it is one of the few large discount stores that has offered layaway year-round for about four decades. Under the program, customers can make purchases but let the store hold onto their merchandise as they pay it off slowly over several weeks.

The sad memories of layaways lost prompted at least one good Samaritan to pay off the accounts of five people at an Omaha Kmart, said Karl Graff, the store's assistant manager.

"She told me that when she was younger, her mom used to set up things on layaway at Kmart, but they rarely were able to pay them off because they just didn't have the money for it," Graff said.

He called a woman who had been helped, "and she broke down in tears on the phone with me. She wasn't sure she was going to be able to pay off their layaway and was afraid their kids weren't going to have anything for Christmas."

"You know, 50 bucks may not sound like a lot, but I tell you what, at the right time, it may as well be a million dollars for some people," Graff said.

Graff's store alone has seen about a dozen layaway accounts paid off in the last 10 days, with the donors paying $50 to $250 on each account. "To be honest, in retail, it's easy to get cynical about the holidays, because you're kind of grinding it out when everybody else is having family time," Graff said. "It's really encouraging to see this side of Christmas again."

Lori Stearnes of Omaha also benefited from the generosity of a stranger who paid all but $58 of her $250 layaway bill for toys for her four youngest grandchildren.

Stearnes said she and her husband live paycheck to paycheck, but she plans to use the money she was saving for the toys to help pay for someone else's layaway.

In Missoula, Mont., a man spent more than $1,200 to pay down the balances of six customers whose layaway orders were about to be returned to a Kmart store's inventory because of late payments.

Store employees reached one beneficiary on her cellphone at Seattle Children's Hospital, where her son was being treated for an undisclosed illness.

"She was yelling at the nurses, 'We're going to have Christmas after all!'" store manager Josine Murrin said.

A Kmart in Plainfield Township, Mich., called Roberta Carter last week to let her know a man had paid all but 40 cents of her $60 layaway. Carter, a mother of eight from Grand Rapids, Mich., said she cried upon hearing the news. She and her family have been struggling as she seeks a full-time job.

"My kids will have clothes for Christmas," she said.

Angie Torres, a stay-at-home mother of four children under the age of 8, was in the Indianapolis Kmart on Tuesday to make a payment on her layaway bill when she learned the woman next to her was paying off her account.

"I started to cry. I couldn't believe it," said Torres, who doubted she would have been able to pay off the balance. "I was in disbelief. I hugged her and gave her a kiss."

10,000 Hits Per Week

2011-12-14T16:23:00.000-06:00

The Sports Information Director at Millsaps sent me an email today. He couldn't remember the password for the Smugmug account with all of the Millsaps photo albums. My memory wasn't any better, but I just reset the password to something new and the problem was solved.

The reason I could reset the password is because the account is still in my name. That way the $150 annual fee comes to me and I foot the bill for the athletic department. It seems like a small price to pay in order to keep my tens of thousands of Millsaps photos available for viewing and copying.

While most of the photos on that website are the ones taken by me from 2004 through 2010, the Millsaps SID did load 26 albums this summer of photos taken by parents during the 2010-11 season. Unfortunately, these 26 albums only cover football, men's and women's soccer, softball, and women's lacrosse, but it's better than nothing. It does prove my belief that a group of parents were capable of stepping in and covering the gap caused by my retirement from the one person project. I know there were also a lot of baseball photos taken, and probably some in the other sports, so most of the athletes should have photos from last season.

Well I'm getting off track which is no surprise. There have only been two albums loaded this year, photos that I took at a preseason football practice and during one of the football games. Even with this lack of recent activity, I saw today that the Smugmug site has had 133,000+ hits since the start of the school year. That's about 1,000 hits per day. Not near what it use to be in the past when some months were over 250,000 hits, but it's nice to know that the account is still getting a fair amount of traffic and providing a fair amount of viewing pleasure.

There's a part of me that always wants to reconsider my retirement from this project. Could I go back and take photos at just one tennis match, a couple of softball game, a few baseball games, one track meet, and a little lacrosse during the spring of 2012? Maybe, but you know how I always try to do too much. I'm my own worst enemy--but the photos are important. Maybe I could go back this spring and show some restraint like I'm currently doing with basketball. Crap, I hate that I'm even thinking about the photos and going back. Why does it seem like making my life a mess is in my DNA?

A bunch of short stuff

2011-12-13T18:56:00.000-06:00

This is a photo I took of the Hildebrand family at Price's 60th birthday party. It was so dark in the room and the autofocus on my camera was hit-or-miss all night. As you can see, the focus on this was a miss instead of a hit.

I really came close to deleting the photo because it is so out of focus. I sometimes think that it would be better for me to delete a lot more photos, only giving people the cream of the crop from my efforts. It would make me look like a better photographer and it would give them less junk to look through. What stops me from doing this is the realization that I'm a poor judge when it comes to determining what other people will like. Their cream of the crop might be different from my cream of the crop.

I was reminded of that yesterday when I opened the mail and saw that this photo was used by the Hildebrands for this year's Christmas card. Guess it's a good thing that the photo didn't end up in my recycle bin.

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My new camcorder microphone came in today. There's a big show this Saturday that I'll attend after taking photos at George and Ann's Holiday Party. Do I try out the new mic this Saturday or stick with the old one? It's sort of a bird in the hand or two in the bush question. Past experience tells me that I should stick with the old until I have time to do some experimenting with the new piece of equipment.

And speaking of new equipment, Santa is bringing me a new camcorder this Christmas. There's a Canon VIXIA HF M40 Full HD Camcorder with HD CMOS Pro and 16GB Internal Flash Memory coming my way in the near future. In really low light situations this should do better than my Panasonic. In better light, the Panasonic might be the better choice. It will be nice to have some options when it comes to trying to get good videos in challenging situations.

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I was going to vote in the Jackson Free Press Best of Jackson Competition this evening. Then I looked at the ballot and saw it was fill in the blank instead of multiple choice. This makes sense, but I was intimidated and didn't fill out the form. It reminded me of just how little I get out and about, of just how isolated I am from a normal life. I go to Millsaps some, go to concerts a lot, and all of the other things to do in this town are foreign to me.

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A day or two ago I mentioned Josh Hailey's Photamerica: 50 states in 50 weeks Kickstarter project. At the time it didn't seem likely that I would be a part of the project. Today I took the time to watch his video, realized that this is the type thing and the type of person I should support, and I signed up as a fairly significant backer. It seemed like a good investment to make.

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And finally, there was a story in the Clarion-Ledger today that certainly caught my attention with the first sentence: "A truck driver claims his prostitute fiancee suffocated as they celebrated their engagement with a meth and bondage sex party." And then the story really gets strange. Click HERE if you need a bit of odd news to brighten up your day or to make you glad that you come from a relatively normal family.

Is Tebow's "Blanda Moment" Over?

2011-12-12T21:08:00.001-06:00

Forty years ago an unlikely hero emerge when 43-year old George Blanda came off the bench as both a kicker and backup quarterback to energize the Oakland Raiders football team. For all the youngsters in the reading audience, here's a Wikipedia recap of his remarkable play in a stretch of games during the 1970 season:

"In 1970, Blanda was released during the exhibition season, but bounced back to establish his 21st professional season. That season (1970) Blanda, at age 43, had a remarkable five-game run. Against the Steelers, Blanda threw for three touchdowns in relief of an injured Daryle Lamonica. One week later, his 48-yard field goal with three seconds remaining salvaged a 17–17 tie with the Kansas City Chiefs. On November 8, Blanda once again came off the bench to throw for a touchdown pass to tie the Cleveland Browns with 1:34 remaining, then kicked a 53-yard field goal with 0:03 left for the 23–20 win. Immediately after the winning field goal, Raiders radio announcer Bill King excitedly declared, "George Blanda has just been elected King of the World!". In the team's next game, Blanda replaced Lamonica in the fourth quarter and connected with Fred Biletnikoff on a touchdown pass with 2:28 left in the game to defeat the Denver Broncos, 24–19. The streak concluded one week later when Blanda's 16-yard field goal in the closing seconds defeated the San Diego Chargers, 20–17.

In the AFC title game against the Baltimore Colts, Blanda again relieved an injured Lamonica, completing 17 of 32 passes for 217 yards and 2 touchdowns while also kicking a 48-yard field goal and two extra points, keeping the Raiders in the game until the final quarter, when he was intercepted twice. Aged 43, he became the oldest quarterback ever to play in a championship game, and was one of the few remaining straight-ahead kickers in the NFL."

I remember the buzz created by Blanda during that season. It was so similar to what is going on now with Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos. People who didn't care about football wanted to know if George Blanda had pulled off another miracle. People thought that there was no way Blanda could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for one more week, and somehow he did. It was a great run--and then it came to an end. Tim Tebow has had a great run and it just feels like the run is about to end.

Surprising streaks like this happen all the time in sports. Remember the run by the local team at the Little League World Series this year? Remember when Chris Evert was a 16-year-old schoolgirl at the U.S. Open and she kept winning round after round? Remember Butler getting to the finals of the NCAA Basketball Tournament last year? Remember journeyman golfer John Daly getting in as the last alternate at the 1991 PGA Championship and then he won the tournament?

These great sports stories usually involve a person or team with talent that is unrecognized or under appreciated. They often involved a streak that includes a few fortunate breaks. There's often a little help from opponents making a crucial mistake or getting rattled by the situation. They often go through the steps of being surprising, then unbelievable, and finally it gets to the point where people start believing. The streaks usually end right about the time that people start believing. I noticed today that a whole lot of sports people are starting to believe that Tebow's success might not be a fluke. It looks like the return to reality is just around the corner.

Denver hosts New England (10-3) next Sunday and I think New England will score enough to eliminate the possibility of any last minute heroics. Next up for Denver will be a Saturday away game at Buffalo (5-8). Buffalo stinks,having lost 6 straight games, and Denver has won 5 straight road games, but I think Buffalo will win a close one. Then Denver hosts Kansas City (5-8) on New Year's Day. This seems like a likely win for Denver, especially since Kansas City has numerous key injuries, just fired their coach, and will likely be 5-10 going into the game.

You know, now that I've looked at the Denver schedule, I can see where some might be expecting Tebow and his teammates to sweep them all. It's not so far-fetched since they should be favored in two out of the three games. Maybe I should get on the bandwagon instead of being a hater--but no, this just has the feel of something where the breaks are going to start going in the opposite direction. Also, sometimes winning as the underdog is a lot easier than winning as the favorite.

For the record, I hope my prediction is 100% incorrect. It would be great to see Denver go 3-0 to finish out the season. It seems to me that Tebow going 10-1 as a starter for Denver would be a much bigger and better story than Green Bay going 16-0 in the regular season. I'd love to see it happen, but I've seen this story before and the more likely ending is a return to reality.

Money money money money, MONEY

2011-12-11T19:52:00.000-06:00

We all recognize "Money money money money, MONEY" as the opening lyrics to the O'Jays song "For the Love of Money". According to this song lyrics website, the song starts out repeating the word "money" 25 times. I won't go into 25 thoughts about money, but let's start off the week with money as a topic:

-----First off, is there anything that's more "money" in sports these days than a Tim Tebow guided Denver Broncos team? They were down 10-0 in the wanning minutes of today's game with Chicago and Tebow was stinking up the stadium. So what happens? Tebow throws a TD pass with 2:08 left in the 4th quarter, Denver gets a 59-yard FG with :03 left in regulation, and then Denver gets a 51-yard FG to win in overtime. It is a remarkable story that has to come to an end someday. Or does it?

-----Last Sunday I saw the Millsaps assistant baseball coach when walking into the Millsaps gym with my camera equipment. I quicky explained that my return to taking photos was limited to basketball only. He asked, maybe half-jokingly, how much money would it take to get me to photograph the baseball team? It made me wonder if there is an amount of money that would lure me back to the photo project. I don't think so. My spare time is reserved for filling needs, not filling my bank account.

-----Speaking of getting paid for spare time activities, a band asked me what I would charge to come and film them this past Saturday. It's nice that maybe someone would pay me for my work, but my plans on Saturday were to film at Sneaky Beans for free. One of the bands scheduled to play was "The Old Family Circus" and the lead singer is sort of related to me. He is the nephew of my brother-in-law Bill, and I thought he and the band were pretty good. Here's one of their videos:

-----And speaking of music videos, someone sent me an email today requesting a donation towards helping them record a live album complete with filming a DVD of the show. Well, not exactly a request for a donation. It was a request to become a backer on this One Night, One Live Album Kickstarter project. You get something back from the band depending on how much you pledge. I'm seeing this more and more, people coming up with projects and then using the internet to cast a wide net for backers. I'm not sure how I feel about this trend.

A more ambious Kickstarter project is Josh Hailey's "PHOTAMERICA: 50 States in 50 weeks" which is seeking to raise the $23,000 needed to foot his fuel bill for such an epic project. Josh told me over a year ago that he wanted to do this project and it sounds great in theory. The problem is that Josh is such a creative guy with so many available opportunities. How many great projects will he have to turn down in order to stay with this commitment of 50 states in 50 weeks? I bet it will be a lot, but certainly he has taken that into consideration already.

-----Seems like I had one more money item to add to this post, but that last item has escaped from my memory. It probably wasn't very interesting anyway. No time to think of anything else or rework the above. I've got photos to edit while listening to the NY Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys game. Somehow I always end each weekend with work left to do and time running out.

Cool Show Tonight at Sneaky Beans

2011-12-10T16:20:00.000-06:00

Joe Robinson, winner of the 2008 Australia's Got Talent competition, is playing at Sneaky Beans tonight. Don't know how that all got worked out. There are 3 other bands on the lineup, all local bands performing in a charity event that is being put on by a Florence high school student as his senior project. Here's a link to the facebook event page: To Write Love on Her Arms Benefit. This is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.

At first I thought it was a put-on about Joe Robinson being added to the event at such late notice, but I checked Joe Robinson's Twitter feed and he has been in Tupelo and New Orleans over the last two days. That makes me think it is for real.

The lineup and the purpose of the show sound pretty cool, the show itself will be extremely cold. It's going to be out back behind Sneaky Beans and is scheduled to start at 6 this evening. Right now the temperature outside is 52 degrees, and the low tonight is predicted to be 27. That's right--5 degrees below freezing. Brrr, but I'll be there with my camcorder. One of the other bands includes the nephew of my brother-in-law Bill. I've been wanting to catch one of their shows and this is my chance.

By the way, with the show starting early, it still leaves me time to catch one of the two later shows that will include people I know. Liver Mousse plays at the Ole Tavern and most of the guys in Frank and the Meltones are playing under another band name tonight at Sam's. Don't know if I'll make either of those shows. Heading home and crawling under my electric blanket after the first show sounds like it will be my most appealing late night option.

New Mic and the Same Old Story

2011-12-08T16:38:00.000-06:00

I took off from work this afternoon with plenty of work awaiting me at home. Instead of editing photos or working on videos or doing needed household chores, I decided to do more research on finding a new external microphone for my Panasonic HDC-HS700 camcorder. The more I researched, the less I felt confident about making the right decision.

Finally I decided to order the Sennheiser MKE 400 mini-shotgun microphone (pictured here). I was leaning towards the Rode SVM Stereo Condenser Microphone, but that mic is significantly larger than my camcorder and significantly heavier than the MKE 400.

Will this improve the audio in my videos? I have no idea. The sound on my videos is usually very good until I'm trying to record a loud band in close quarters. That describes most of the bands I see at Hal and Mal's, the Ole Tavern, and now I've added Martin's to my potential recording locations. In those settings I end up close to the stage and I've been pointing my Zoom H2 recorder straight at a big speaker. It is VERY loud. I'm usually wearing ear buds to monitor the sound so that helps block some of the noise from my eardrums. I'm thinking about going to earplugs to block out even more noise.

The Zoom H2 has been having trouble with the louder bands. At least I think it's the Zoom H2. Maybe it is doing just fine and the problem is in the camcorder. I'm just going by trial-and-error here, hoping to find the right equipment to get the job done. It won't surprise me if I end up having to do another trial-and-error purchase in the near future.

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The same old story part of the post is regarding photography. We have our office Christmas party this evening. It's at Shapley's restaurant starting in 45 minutes. I just thought about how the traffic is going to be terrible going from my house to that location so I had better leave soon.

Many co-workers have asked me, "Are you going to take photos tonight?". Or maybe it is phase as, "You are going to take photos tonight, aren't you?". There's a slight difference in tone between those two statements. The answer is yes, I am going to take photos. In a way I don't mind because I know how much everyone enjoys the photos afterwards. Also, the photos are used whenever someone retires to make a scrapbook and I know that the retirees enjoy having the photos.

On the other hand, there's a bit of resentment that it is expected that I'll take photos at just about every company event. The Christmas party, retirement parties, baby showers--it doesn't amount to more than two or three events a year and in general I don't mind, but there is a little negative twinge that goes along with taking these photos. Not much, but it is there. Oh well, I guess it's just part of the job. And now I have to go or I'll be late for my assignment.

National Schools Tchoukball Finals 2010 : Ping Yi Sec vs Sembawang Sec

2011-12-07T20:00:00.001-06:00

Don't you hate it when a person talks about being SO BUSY and then you find out that they have plenty of time for frivolous things like watching a video of the National Schools Tchoukball Finals from 2010?

Well, I was doing research, looking for videos shot with a Panasonic HS700 camcorder, and this video was in the search results. I didn't want to watch all of the video, maybe just a minute or two to get a glimpse of Tchoukball. Then it sort of became like one of those movies where you think about walking out in the middle, but you feel like something bigger and better is bound to happen and you don't want to miss that moment. And you keep watching and it slowly dawns on you that no, this isn't going to get any better, but by then you feel compelled to see this thing through to the end.

The only thing I gathered from the video is that it comes from a country where sports directors still think that girls not capable of strenuous exercise. It's mostly just standing around, throwing the ball up the court to an unguarded teammate, and then a little razzle-dazzle action involving one of those ball return trampolines. The entire game is a little lame and non-athletic--and keep in mind that this game is the national finals so these teams are the best of the best (not sure which nation).

I don't think Tchoukball is going to catch hold in America.....

OH WAIT, THIS JUST GOT MORE INTERESTING:

I was going to post a link to the Wikipedia Tchoukball page and what I read on that page explains a lot:

Tchoukball is an indoor team sport developed in the 1970s by Swiss biologist Hermann Brandt, who believed that "The objective of all physical activities is not to make champions, but make a contribution to building a harmonious society". His aim was to develop a team sport which did not involve the horrific injuries which he viewed as plaguing other sports.

Should have known the Swiss were behind this game. Being neutral and passive is their nation's motto. A game that isn't geared towards making champions but instead strives to build a harmonious society!?! A game where one of the fouls is when a player "makes any form of interception whether intentionally or not, while the other team is passing or physically blocking another player from catching the ball"!?! Oh my, what a wimp sport.

It's safe to say that Tchoukball will never become an official sport of the SEC. Can you see teams from Auburn and Alabama or Ole Miss and Mississippi State playing Tchoukball with the goal of building a harmonious society? Ain't going to happen in my lifetime or yours.

Frank and the Meltones: Good Man, Bad Man

2011-12-06T18:18:00.001-06:00

Frank and the Meltones obviously took their name from former Jackson Mayor Frank Melton. This could have been Mayor Melton's theme song considering the lyrics: "I'm not a good man, I'm not a bad man, I'm stuck somewhere in the middle again". A lot of people couldn't figure out if the mayor was a good man or a bad man.

The audio quality of this video (and most of my Frank and the Meltones videos) isn't very good. That pains me. I know and like Drew, Murph, Bobby, and Don, the four musicians on the front row. I really wanted to come up with some good quality stuff and failed big time.

Not that the conditions were favorable for success. The lighting wasn't nearly as good as it looks in the video. I had the camcorder lens as wide open as it would go and the shutter speed as slow as possible (30 frames per second). While the image turned out somewhat grainy, it's somewhat acceptable. As for the sound, I had fears right from the start that it would be a problem and those fears were realized.

I was standing on a chair about 8 feet in front of a huge set of speakers. There were times when the air being pushed out of the speakers moved my clothes and hair. I had the settings on my Zoom H2 recorder and on the camcorder set extremely low and the meter readings never showed anything in the red zone, but still I got spikes in the sound throughout this set. Bummer.

Last night I was online for a few hours checking out various camcorder and audio forums, looking for a solution to my problem. I have to be able to get good audio when standing right in front of loud speakers. Often that's the only place with a somewhat clear line of sight to the band. My guess is that a new microphone to replace the Zoom H2 is what I need. That's not a problem from the cost standpoint--as I've always said, my main cost in time, not money spent on equipment. The problem I have is trying to figure out what microphone or audio controlling device would work well in these high volume situations.

This is where I need a mentor. It doesn't have to be some wise old man or woman with years in the recording business. It could be a high school kid who happens to be a geek for sound and recording equipment. I need someone with knowledge to teach me. That's a lot quicker way to learn that trail-and-error based on internet research.

(Speaking of mentors, I really want to write a post on "The Minimalist Guide to Mentoring", but doing a post like that takes too much time. This was more of a stream of consciousness post, something that doesn't take half the night. And that's a good thing because I went to the Laundromat today and there's a gigantic pile of clothes that need to be ironed this evening. And photos that need to be edited. And work that needs to be done on the videos. And guys night out tomorrow, plus an office Christmas party on Thursday. Life is just too darn busy.)

An Oddity from Facebook

2011-12-05T21:40:00.000-06:00

While facebook posts can present a wide variety of quirky things, this image caught my eye as being particularly odd. What's the message that they are trying to convey with these words:

"Most of u won't repost this because apparently your 'TOO COOL' but really your selfish. Repost this in honor of those fighting cancer."

Where do we begin on this? How about the use of "u" for "you"? I understand the use of shortcuts when texting or even jotting down a note for a friend. Are we going to get to a point where people think these shortcuts are okay for general writing purposes?

Then we move on to using "your" for "you are". Now I make plenty of typos on this blog, but there are times when it is important to double and triple check for errors. There are times when it is important to get someone to proofread your work. I think a lot of people have gotten lazy with their writing, counting on spellchecker to take the place of a through job of proof reading. Admittedly, I'm guilty of this far too often--such as right now when I don't really care if "spellchecker" should be two words or "proof reading" should be one.

Getting past the poor writing, it was the message that really perplexed me with its "in your face" approach. Do most of us not care about seriously ill people because we are "too cool" to care or because we are "selfish"? Either way, whoever created this image sure has a bad impression of everyone in the world who isn't inclined to repost their creation. By the way, I did repost it so obviously I'm not a selfish person who is too cool to care.

And finally, can someone tell me how reposting a photo on facebook is going to "honor" those people who are dealing with cancer? I get so sick of all these facebook requests/demands to repost things or change your profile photo or whatever. I need to come up with an image for facebook that reads, "If you hate being told to repost things, then repost this image." Someone has probably done that already.

Well, anyway. It's 9:35 and I'm ready to get to bed. Should I proof read this post? Nah, if spellchecker didn't find anything then I'm sure that it's okay.

Tebow, Tiger, and other sports stories

2011-12-04T20:34:00.000-06:00

Given the stories that have surrounded them over the last few years, you might think that Tim Tebow and Tiger Woods occupy opposite ends of the sports spectrum. I think they are as close together as next door neighbors. Both are extremely compelling figures that we like to talk about. Both had a great weekend, Tebow getting a win to go to 6-1 as a starting quarterback this year, and Tiger winning his first tournament since 2009.

So what if Tebow is goodie-goodie and Tiger had a sordid secret life. That only matters if you think of athletes as role models, and I hope that most adults are wise enough to pick role models based on reasons more significant than athletic skills. Tebow,Tiger, Kim, Paris, Justin, etc. are just topics of conversation, something we can talk about at the office. It's better talking about them than talking about the weather or hearing someone present a monologue on the greatness of their grandchildren.

For the record, I have for more confidence in Tiger's chances for outstanding success over the next five years than I have in Tim Tebow. Yes, Tim has been great and it has been a neat story. That partially due to his athletic talent and his leadership, and partially due to the unique style of football that Denver is playing and the weakness of their schedule. Before too long there will be enough tape for opposing coaches to prepare better defenses, especially better defenses towards the end of games, and Denver will start playing some stronger teams. When that happens, I think Tebow and Denver will revert back to being fairly average.

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Rules are rules: In the Mississippi 6A High School Football Championship game, Petal was trailing Olive Branch 35-34 when they lined up for a 43-yard game winning field goal in the final seconds. The Petal kicker made the field goal, won the championship--but wait--Olive Branch jumped offsides on the play which nullified the field goal. The Petal kicker missed the second try from 38 yards. Olive Branch, thanks to committing a penalty, goes from runner-up to state champions. Doesn't seem fair, but the rules are the rules.

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LSU and Alabama will meet again with the national championship on the line in this rematch. While it seems like the proper matchup of the 2 best teams in the country, I sure would prefer LSU and Oklahoma State. Then again, the odds are pretty good that I wouldn't watch the game regardless of who was playing who.

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University of Southern Mississippi went to Houston this past weekend and gave the University of Houston their first loss of the season. A nice win for USM, a bad loss for Conference USA (and consequently USM). If Houston had won they would have gotten into a BCS bowl and the payout to Conference USA would have been something like $13-16 million. I bet every athletic director in the conference felt sick to their stomach with USM winning the game--that's a lot of extra dollars that would have done wonders for a lot of athletic budgets.

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Finally, former Jackson sports reporter and personality Michael Rubenstein passed away last Friday. Former Mississippi governor Bill Waller also passed away last Friday. I'll admit that Rubenstein's death was the sadder news for me. Not because of a lack of caring for Governor Waller or his family, but because I felt a closer connection to Rubenstein. Seeing him reporting the sports night after night for years, being geared into sports a lot more than politics, it just seemed like Rubenstein was a well liked friend and I was sorry to hear of his passing.

A Repost from the New Diet Blog

2011-12-04T09:29:00.000-06:00

Might as well use this diet blog post over here, getting more bang for my buck as "they" like to say. Writing the diet blog is much easier than doing this blog. First off, hardly anyone will ever read it so there's no feeling of having to get just the right words. And second, it's more of a stream of consciousness blog, more of a pep talk to myself as I go about the task of trying to lose almost 60 pounds.

Here is today's diet blog post which fits in okay with what I would normally write over here (btw, here is the diet blog LINK):

We have a music video today because:
A) Surveys show that diet blog readers love YouTube music videos.
B) Surveys show that diet blog writers love YouTube music videos.
C) I'm going to use the video as an excuse for gaining 2 pounds yesterday.
D) All of the above.

The correct answer is none of the above. Answer "C" is the closest, but I'm not really looking for any excuses, just presenting my realities of life. I'm sure you have your own challenging realities that get in the way of successful dieting.

Last night I stopped by Hal and Mal's to drop off some video DVDs for a Hattiesburg singer named Thomas Jackson. This was around 9 o'clock and I knew it would be well after midnight before I got back home. Therefore, I had stopped at McDonald's on my way to the show, not getting too much, but enough to qualify as a small meal. That's one extra meal for the day, not a great diet plan.

At Hal and Mal's I couldn't just ask for water while watching the show, so I ended up drinking two Bud Lights. Not too bad, but it added 200 calories to my daily total. Then I added 200 calories more with two more Bud Lights after walking across the street for a show at Martin's. That's where the above video was taken.

So we had an extra meal and 4 Bud Lights. Unfortunately, as they say on the "Price Is Right" showcase, "but wait, there's more". That's right, I got home at 1:30 and still had to download the files from my camcorder to the computer, look at a few of the files, and then get an upload to YouTube going. That meant staying up till 2:30, an hour of work that was fueled by 250 calories of popcorn.

In theory, extra activities shouldn't mean extra eating. In reality, extra activities throw a person out of their routine and into situations where failing to eat more would be very difficult. I could have asked for a Diet Coke at the bar, making me look even more out of place than usual, and usually I'm the most out of place looking person at these shows. I could have skipped the McDonald's and just dealt with the hunger that was sure to crop up halfway through the evening. Those are choices I wasn't willing to make.

This afternoon I'll be at two Millsaps basketball games, watching one and taking photographs at the other. It's a little easier to stick with a diet in that type of setting. Tonight I'll be tired and working at the computer a lot, either working on the videos or the basketball photos. Somewhere in all that work it will be tempting to reward my hard efforts with food. Or maybe to use food as a source of quick energy when the body wants rest. I'll have to stay sharp today or else yesterday's outing will come back to haunt me with even more extra calories. Dieting is an effort that gets off track in a hurry if one lets their attention stray too far and for too long.

Starting at forward--Number 25--Brittnei Earl

2011-12-03T10:11:00.000-06:00

I don't need to tell you blog readers that the work load involved with the Millsaps sports photo project was killing me. Literally killing me. There's no way that I could ever go back and duplicate the effort that went into all those years.

BUT, when I see a photo like this one taken last night, I regret that the photo project had to end. The vast majority of Millsaps athletes seem like such great young adults. Their bios always include honors received as both athletes and scholars. It just seems to me that bringing recognition to these students is important and giving them photos to capture their college achievements is important. I'll cover the 25-30 basketball players this year, knowing that few people have the equipment needed to take action photos in the Millsaps Hangar Dome. I'll skip the temptation to cover the outdoor sports--there are plenty of people with camera equipment good enough for outdoor action photos and the job of covering those athletes shouldn't fall on me.

Yahoo News Snapshots from the Week of December 2

2011-12-03T02:53:00.000-06:00

I always like going through the Yahoo Yahoo News snapshots of the week. Sometimes they are related to a major news event, sometimes just a slice of life, but it's a nice visual break to stroll through the images. The boy and the lion is one of my favorites this week as is the ladybug covered with dew. Check out this link and see which ones you like:

Link to Yahoo News snapshots for week of December 2

Owen Beverly: "Legs and Scars"

2011-12-01T20:30:00.000-06:00

Owen Beverly singing his song "Legs and Scars" last night at Sneaky Beans Coffee Shop in Jackson, MS.

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Hey, wait a second. Didn't I write a couple of days ago that I was going to take a break from the music videos? Well, yes I did--but this and the other 6 videos from last night were all unplanned.

You see, it was Wednesday so I went by Mother's house after work for a visit, then to the Ole Tavern after that for a few beers with friends. A couple of stops after leaving the Ole Tavern made it just about 8 o'clock when I got home.

Naturally I checked facebook to see what was going on with my hundreds of internet friends. That's when I saw that Owen was playing at Sneaky Beans starting at 8. That's only 3 blocks away, I like Owen, and this would be the perfect chance to give him the DVDs from his last show. So I headed to Sneaky Beans, but left the camcorder and my Canon camera at home.

I delivered the DVDs, Owen asked if I was staying for the show, so naturally I said yes. And naturally the show started closer to 8:45 than 8. After a few songs I'm sort of feeling like something isn't quite right. Just sitting and listening is an odd feeling. Felt like I needed to do something while listening. Then it dawned on me that I had my pocket camera, the Lumix DMC-ZS7. Maybe I could just experiment with the video option on that camera. Just for a song or two or seven.

All of the videos turned out fairly good. Not as good as the camcorder would have done, but good enough. So okay, now that's probably the last filming I'll do for a while--except that "Ice for Eagles" has a CD release party this Saturday and I like their music and the musicians. And then a lot of great shows tend to just pop up over the holidays. This taking a break stuff might turn out to be harder than it looks.

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Small note: Towards the end of "Legs and Scars" there's the line: "Cause you're the reason I don't wear my seat belt any more". Maybe I'm the only one who thinks that's a fantastic line. The words of a guy who has been dumped by a girl. Not exactly feeling suicidal and wanting to die, but showing just a bit of lacking the will to live by driving without a seat belt. Sounds exactly like a guy who has been dumped.

Is 175 Still a Possibility?

2011-11-29T21:14:00.001-06:00

A photo of Terry Butcher and me taken October 13, 1984 during a Millsaps Homecoming tennis tournament. I was almost 33 and my running and participation in numerous sports kept my weight down around the 165 pound mark. That weight is the level I maintained from the age of 20 until my mid-30's (and how about that red hair!).

This photo was taken October 28, 1989, at a Fighting Tigers soccer game (shortly before my 38th birthday). That's Robert at the front of the line getting water. This was about the time that I started doing more coaching and less playing with the result being a weight increase to 175 pounds.

An April 16, 1995 golf outing with Will. As a 44 year old, I suspect that 175 was a thing of the past by at least 10 pounds. Even though my soccer playing days were a distant memory, I was still coaching at St. Joseph High School and was in good enough shape to fill in during practice scrimmages.

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Over the last few weeks I've been thinking a lot about the past. Thinking about how much I loved sports even when my lot in life was to be the last kid picked in most of the neighborhood games. That status of usually being the worst player in the game changed in college when a significant loss of weight during my sophomore year allowed me to become a somewhat decent athlete. At times, a very good athlete.

And now....well, now an argument could be made that I'm a less capable athlete than that short, fat kid who loved to play even though he couldn't play worth a lick. How did I let this happen?

We all know how it happened. I've gotten wrapped up in so many things that have given me great satisfaction but have also required sacrifices. Those sacrifices have eroded away the life I once had, put me on a path that just can't be followed for much longer without doing some serious damage. I've got to cut down on the excessive behavior and get things back in balance.

That's means less or even no videos for a while, especially since there will be 8-10 events between now and Christmas where I plan to take photos. After Christmas the camera will mostly go back into storage and the video camera has to be used with less frequency than in the past. Cutting back on excessive behavior also means less blogging. What takes you two minutes to read often takes me two hours to write. I can't keep spending that much time trying to produce 5 posts a week. That's time that could be spent walking, stretching, getting areas of my life caught up and organized--it's time that I've got to recapture and redistribute in order to get that balance back in my life.

The first order of business is the same thing that I'm been half-heartedly working on for the last 5 years. I've got to get my weight down to a healthy level. Is 175 pounds a possibility? I think it is while realizing that it will take a lengthy commitment and a willingness to exercise as part of a regular routine. It also will require that a lot of the time that I've been giving to others will now have to be spent on myself. Of course, spending time to regain my health might give me an extra 10 years of giving to others. Taking care of myself should be a win-win for everyone.

SO, for those of you who have gotten this far, don't be surprised or alarmed if the blog posts start appearing less frequently. That will hopefully be a sign that I'm working on getting my life back together again and taking better care of myself. If not now, then when? If not now, then how long before it will be too late?

Thanksgiving Photo

2011-11-28T20:50:00.000-06:00

Here's a Thanksgiving photo of my niece Erica and her three daughters, (from l. to r.) Charlie, Bennett, and Emerson.

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No time to write tonight and really no desire to write. Might be that way all week. Seems like I've got so many things that need to be done and so little energy or enthusiasm for the tasks at hand. Think I'll go to bed with the Saints game playing on the radio, hopefully getting something close to 8 hours of sleep/rest before heading out to work in the morning.

You Are Better Than You Think

2011-11-27T21:39:00.000-06:00

This is the photo I used Sunday morning for my daily facebook photo. It was taken on Monroe Street here in Jackson, a half block down and across the street from the Hildebrand home.

The six words, "you are better than you think", is a message I've tried to get across to a lot of people during my lifetime. Certainly that was a key message during my years working with the church youth groups and my years of coaching. In a less direct way, my photos and videos are taken with the objective of capturing people during their best moments, a reminder to them of just how good they can be.

I was thinking about these six words today and it dawned on me that the person who probably needs to hear them as much as anyone is myself. I don't have much of a sense of excellence when it comes to anything that I do. Some of what I do is okay, even better than average, but is that the best I can do? It seems like lately I've forced myself into mediocrity with too much of too many things. Multiple blogs, taking a thousand videos this year, taking tens of thousands of photos each year. How can anyone produce quality work when they are churning out so much stuff?

Will I ever reach my potential in anything if I keep up this current pace? Will I even have a clue of my potential if I keep up this massive amount of output? Maybe not. Maybe I don't want to know or maybe I'm a little afraid to really invest myself fully in any one thing. Then again, maybe I've peaked out and going with less volume and more focus wouldn't make much of a difference.

Oh well, I might as well close this post and go work on the 800 photos I took at the men's basketball game tonight and I need to get an upload going on some of the 35-40 videos that were shot last Wednesday. Maybe my talent is simply that I'm willing to do a whole lot more than the average person.

Facebook morning photos

2011-11-25T13:59:00.000-06:00

Posting videos of the "Electric Hamhock" band delayed my blog post today. You know the story by now, about how this blog is set up under one Google account and the videos are under another. If video uploads are going and I try to post here, then my uploads get fouled up. It's a pain. I started the YouTube uploads last night then realized that I hadn't done my blog post so I couldn't post last night.

The "Electric Hamhock" videos have now uploaded and I'll slip in a quick post before starting on the "Passenger Jones" uploads. Earlier this week I came up with the idea of posting one photo each morning on facebook. No particular theme, just one photo that I like to start the day. To be honest, I'm not sure of the motivation behind this idea. Is it to amuse people? Is it to make people think I'm a great photographer? Is it just another project because I don't have enough projects in my life? Maybe some of all that plus a bunch of other reasons.

Whatever the reason, I have posted 4 photos so far and have about 10 more ready to post. Considering that there are at least 100,000 photos on my computer, finding one photo each day that is amusing or interesting shouldn't be too hard. Also, this may motivate me to take more day-to-day photos. I've sort of burned out on photography and need some sort of shot in the arm. Well anyway, I might try to do a blog post each week with the photos used, and here are the 4 photos posted during this short week:

First Wheels, Last Wheels: I saw this electric scooter in the Kroger parking lot one morning, saw the kiddie cars in the buggy bin, and immediately recognized the potential. The only problem was that it was too dark, so I went inside to shop with hopes that the scooter would still be there when I left. It obviously was and there was enough light to get this quick snapshot before heading on to work.

Captain Kangaroo's Pocket Camera: Mother and I were at a thrift store recently and naturally I had to check out this old camera. Can you imagine carrying around a camera this big during a vacation, an outing, or at a party? Only the Captain had pockets big enough to tote around a camera like this.

Happy Thanksgiving: This is a photo that was taken in 2008. It is the field next to my office building. While this photo was a simple choice to make for Thanksgiving, finding it on my computer was difficult. I finally went to my blog post from 2008 and just copied the version posted there.

Guinness at the Ole Tavern on George Street: This was taken during one of the Wednesday night gatherings. From where I was sitting I saw this image above the bar on the other side of the room. I didn't bother getting up to take the photo, but simply used the zoom on my Lumix DMC-ZS7 camera to get the photo. Today's point-and-shoot cameras are truly amazing.

My Part-time Wife

2011-11-22T20:27:00.001-06:00

Here's the building where I work. My office window is the round porthole just above the "124" in the center.

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I’m the only employee at my office who works the hours of 7 to 4. Everyone else comes in from 7:30 to 4:30 or 8 to 5. The reason for my early start is so I can check on our various servers, the email system, and a few other critical things prior to the other employees arriving for work. Now you would think that I’d have the entire office to myself to start the day, but that isn’t the case. One of the ladies in the office doesn’t like driving in heavy traffic on the interstate so she gets to the office around 6:45, just about the same time that I arrive.

Day after day, week after week, year after year, it’s just the two of us spending time alone at the office. It shouldn’t surprise you that we spend those few minutes together doing what men and women throughout history have done when fate brings them together. That’s right, she talks non-stop and I half-heartedly pretend to listen.

This is how I want to spend the last 15 minutes prior to starting my work day: (1) put ham-and-cheese Hot Pocket in microwave, (2) make enlarged copy of the Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper, (3) get Hot Pocket out of microwave and sports section out of newspaper, (4) sit in front of television, turn on Sports Center in time for the top-10 plays of the day, eat Hot Pocket and glance through sports section. That’s what I want to do each and every day, and that’s all I want to do.

Now I might have a little spare time in my routine for a “good morning”, maybe even enough time for a comment about the weather. There is no spare time allotted for tales of triumphs and heartbreaks involving grandchildren. Also, while it is tragic that your ex-neighbor’s former sister-in-law was rushed to the hospital with two collapsed lungs and a bad case of gout, I just don’t care. Also again, don’t keep me from reading the newspaper by going on and on about a story you read in the newspaper this morning. In other words, please, please, please leave me alone because I am very happy with my morning routine and it won’t be enhanced by non-stop conversation.

Of course, I can't tell my co-worker to be quiet and leave me alone. That would be rude and something tells me that the miffed silence would be worse than the endless talking. I think the only option available is to hang in there until the day comes that I'll be able to retire. That's one more joy I can look forward to in my old age.

My Weekend Update--Feel Free to Comment

2011-11-20T19:43:00.000-06:00

Feel free to comment about my weekend or anything else because my biggest weekend accomplishment was fixing the comment feature on the blog. The key was changing my password. My Blogger user name is an email account and they apparently wanted me to use my email password as the password for Blogger. It wasn't always this way, but now the powers that be on the internet want to link all of a person's activities into one big database. Using an email account and the same password for multiple applications like emailing, blogging, and YouTube is how they are able to tie it all together.

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Only one evening was spent recording this weekend. I was out Saturday night at the Ole Tavern for a show that ended somewhere close to 1:30. How I wish these shows would start and end one hour earlier.

The duo in the above video are Josh Taylor and Cody Cox (aka "The Passing Parade"), two local musicians that I always enjoy talking to when our paths cross. The videos from their show turned out well. I've gotten better and better in recent months on the audio parts of my videos which includes finding ways to block out most of the "crowded bar" noise. The only problem with blocking out the bar noise is that I also block out most of the applause, woo-hoo's, whoops, etc, that come after the song. At the very end of this video you can hear someone in the distant background whistling. That's actually me whistling from right behind the external microphone, a good indication of just how much crowd noise I'm blocking out while recording.

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This past weekend I finally edited the photos taken on my trip to Dallas in July. There are so many photos that need to be edited from the last year: a dog show from last December--the MS Blues Marathon from January--a massive amount of nature photos--the Neshoba County Fair from July--a significant portion of my day to day photography--etc. Sitting down and editing photos is a chore that has fallen way down my "things to do" list. That's partially because of the time spent on videos, but also a lot because the sports project really burned me out in a way that will never fully heal.

If you are thinking that this photo is a poor one of me, join the club. There's nothing wrong with the photo except that there's one really fat person sitting in the center of a group of fit and trim people. It was jarring to see this photo and it has me refocused on cutting out the junk food. There couldn't be a tougher time of the year or a better time of the year for cutting out junk food. By the way, the people in the photo are: Suzy and David, me, Andrew who is a college senior this year, and then Cameron and his girlfriend and they are both college freshmen.

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Speaking of being burned out because of that sports photo project, here's a sports photo taken this past Saturday. No, I haven't lost my mind and restarted the project. It's just that taking action photos in the Millsaps gym is something that requires camera equipment that few people own. I happen to own the right equipment and I've volunteered to take some photos at a couple of the men and women's basketball games.

This offer won't extend to any of the spring sports. There are plenty of people with camera equipment that's very good for taking great outdoor sports photos. All of the spring sports are played outdoors. If photos of those sports don't get taken it will be because numerous people failed to step up and volunteer, not because I decided to get back to living my life.

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Let me end up with just a few comments on sports from this weekend:

---Ole Miss is looking for a football coach. Ole Miss is in the SEC West, home of the top 3 teams in the nation. LSU beat Ole Miss 52-3, Alabama beat Ole Miss 52-7. What coach would want a job where just winning a divisional championship requires using limited resources to produce a team that is a potential BSC champion? It will be interesting to see who they hire and how that person produces.

---Tiger Woods won 2 of 5 matches at the President's Cup. Not great, but I'm thinking it's a sign that the golf professionals of the world had better watch out in 2012. He is still knocking the rust off his game and these matches were against top international players. If I was a betting man, I would bet on the side of Tiger winning one of the 4 majors this coming season.

---MS State basketball fans love to hate Rick Stansbury. They see all the talent on the MS State team and think that the Bulldogs should achieve more, especially when it comes to success in the NCAA Tournament. Two things that they should consider before complaing too loudly: (1) Would another coach be able to attract that level of talent to MS State? (2) Would another coach be able to put together a 10 year stretch with only one losing season in SEC play, plus only one losing season overall in 13 years? When Rick Stansbury leaves MS State, look for the program to take a big drop. State fans should count their blessings on this one, not tally up the coaching flaws.

The Running Lady Majors of Millsaps College

2011-11-19T09:12:00.000-06:00

A 20-second shot clock would have stayed silent during the first half of the Millsaps College Women's Basketball game last night. The run-and-gun affair between Millsaps and Blue Mountain College was 20-17 after 5 minutes, and then the scoring cooled off just a little with the score "only" being 57-47 at the half. Millsaps was that halftime leader and they won the game 99-85, dribbling out the final seconds instead of taking a shot at breaking the century mark.

Here's what's promising for Millsaps. Blue Mountain is a full scholarship NAIA team that was playing its 6th game of the season. This was the opening game for Millsaps and their 12 person roster last night included 8 freshmen. The 13th player on the team is out for a few weeks with a broken bone. This injured player is the lone senior, was the leading rebounder in the conference last season, 2nd leading scorer for Millsaps, and made 3rd team All-SCAC. The team will get a big boost when she returns. This team is a far cry from the one win team that Millsaps had during the last year of my photo project.

The photo above shows the photos used in the "Tip Off Classic" program this weekend. The action photo is one of mine from the 2009-10 season--in case you are wondering, this player does have two complete legs instead of one and a half. The shot of the "Hangar Dome" is one I took last year, a time lapse photo that was taken during a game. The 10 players on the court vanished from the image because they were all moving during the 1.3 seconds that the shutter was open (see the January, 2011 post "Like an Alcoholic Hanging Around a Bar" for more about the photo).

Referring back to that January post is appropriate because I'm seriously considering taking game photos today when Millsaps faces off with Louisiana College for the championship. I know, this means that Frank has gone totally insane. Well, not quite insane because I can absolutely guarantee that this is not the first step towards a return to the photo project. While I have no regrets about those five years, they left me mentally and emotionally incapable of doing such a project again. I'm capable of doing small projects for friends, but no longer capable of doing large projects for strangers.

Taking photos at outdoor sporting events is something one could do with a decent point-and-shoot camera. With the exception of volleyball, all of the fall sports just completed could have been covered by numerous parents and students using camera equipment that they already own. Basketball is different. Basketball is the reason I spent $5,000 on a camera a couple of years ago and several thousand dollars on lenses in the years before that. Without the right equipment, taking action photos inside the Hangar Dome is near impossible. I'm one of the few who have the right equipment. That's why the camera might get a bit of a workout this afternoon and at some point in the future for a men's game. After that, my plan is to go back into retirement.

Items from Facebook--11/17/11

2011-11-17T20:35:00.001-06:00

Blog reader Anne posted the image on facebook and it made me laugh. Hopefully it will make you laugh as well.

William Shatner's music career is something that makes some laugh and others cry. I doubt that it has ever made anyone stand up and cheer. Notice anything odd about the raygun Shatner is holding? Doesn't it look a whole lot like the bottom of a tripod that is folded up? Even by the early Star Trek standards, that's a pretty lame prop.

If you don't get it, then you are probably part of the 7/5's.

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The City Council of Jackson, MS: Allow occupation of Smith Park by Occupy Mississippi on a 24/7 basis: Okay, I'll tell you from the start that I haven't added my name to this petition and have no plans to do so. In my opinion, the entire occupy movement is way too over the top when it comes to how they view the opportunities available to individuals in this country, but that's just my opinion. You may feel different and if so, I'm pointing you to this petition you can sign in support of the Occupy Jackson group. Here's the text of the petition:

Greetings,

I just signed the following petition addressed to: The City Council of Jackson, MS.

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Allow occupation of Smith Park by Occupy Mississippi on a 24/7 basis.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
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Sincerely,

[Your name]

How to lose a customer in one easy step

2011-11-16T20:44:00.001-06:00

As is my habit on Wednesday nights, I stopped at the Wendy's on Woodrow Wilson this evening after the regular get together at the Ole Tavern. My order was the same as usual, a small Junior Cheeseburger Deluxe combo which costs somewhere around $3.60. I get to the window and the lady says it is $5.00. I say, "$5.00 for a small Junior Cheeseburger Deluxe combo?" and she says the price went up. I mentioned that the menu board still shows $3.29 as the price, but she was insistent that $5.00 was the correct price.

I paid the $5 and after getting home discovered that they had billed me for a Double Junior Cheeseburger Deluxe combo. So they ended up getting an extra $1.40 out of me at the cost of losing my regular business. I'm not the type who will argue when the dispute is small and someone doesn't want to listen, but I am the type who will stop being a customer if an employee won't correct an obvious error. Too many employees today fail to realize that a loyal customer is often just one bad experience away from being a non-customer.

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Sometimes I'm really excited about a blog topic, thinking that it has the potential to be one of my better posts. Then I'll start to compose the post in my mind or even start to type it out, and the feeling hits me that absolutely no one will find the story interesting at all. Sometimes I have serious doubts in my ability to ever be interesting. Sometimes I have doubts that people even want to hear a story when it might cut into the time that they could be talking. Sometimes I tell myself just to be a listener and don't even bother trying to tell a story.

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Lots of "Occupy" news going on these days and lots of "Occupy" topics that I want to write about. My better judgement tells me that writing on this subject would be a major mistake. This is one of those topics where rational discussion and honestly listening to the other person is a rarity, therefore it has no business being on the blog.

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Not feeling interesting and not feeling very peppy. Guess I'll go to bed and see what tomorrow brings.

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One last thing to add after checking the sports news before going to bed. Steve Williams, the former caddie for Tiger Woods, needs to understand that he is a caddie and not the star of the PGA tour. While I've always been sort of lukewarm about pulling for Tiger, I really hope he kicks ass at the Presidents Cup event this week and makes Stevie Boy eat a little humble pie.

A Picture is Worth a ....

2011-11-15T21:04:00.000-06:00

A picture is worth a thousand words or $4,300,000 if you can find someone willing to pay that much for one photograph. Every time I see an extravagant auction price for a rather ordinary looking object, my mind wonders if art critics are all in agreement on the object in question. Really now, don't you think there are some photography/art critics that just shake there head at the thought of a buyer paying over four million dollars for a photo about nothing? Here's a link to the BBC story "Andreas Gursky's Rhein II sets photo record".

Of course, common people like you and me aren't sophisticated enough to recognize great value when it comes to art. Okay, maybe you can see it, but I can't and one of the cleaners at the Ostwall museum in Dortmund, Western Germany apparently couldn't see it when looking at this million dollar "work of art" that to the uneducated eye might look like something a junior high kid made to pass the time of day in shop class. The cleaner didn't realize that the stain in the drip pan was part of the art, so she cleaned it up. Here's a link to a story with the lengthy title "Cleaning lady scrubs away stain on Martin Kippenberger's When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling"

I was looking through my list of saved stories for one more thing to go with this post. I believe this link to "The 15 Most Expensive Pictures Ever Taken" was used in a previous post, but what the heck, it's good enough to use again. Obviously the list is no longer correct because of the price paid for the Rhine II photo. The photo pictured here was formerly the most expensive photo ever sold. It is "Cindy Sherman, Untitled #96" and it sold for $3,890,500. It's all really stunning to me.

Last Night's Show, Money Woes, and Occupy Singer

2011-11-14T20:31:00.001-06:00

I ended up going to the show last night and having a good time. The two local performers, Brad Ward (aka "Marlowe and the Sea") and TopherMan, both put on good sets. The two touring bands, "The Winter Sounds" and "The Rocketboys", were excellent and I wish this show had been on another night so that more people could have heard them play. A Sunday night show that ends at 11 isn't the best time slot for drawing a crowd.

This photo shows the items I bought yesterday. My monetary outlay for the evening: $8 at the door, $15 for Rocketboys t-shirt, $10 for Rocketboys CD, $10 for two Winter Sounds CDs = $43. That's a little pricey for one show, but the bands needed money to travel and I doubt that many of the other audience members were buying much merchandise. Considering that I've got about 15,000 songs available on my computer and I'm currently working on a big Daytrotter music project, it's quite possible that I'll never listen to these CDs. Maybe someday in the distant future my heirs will be going through my stuff and will wonder why I have hundreds of unopened CDs from bands they have never heard of--a box full of items bought to help a lot of touring bands get a little farther down the road.

Actually, I did listened to part of "The Winter Sounds" blue album today. The album isn't named "The Blue Album", it's just the one that came in the blue paper bag. The album was burned on a Memorex CD, the CD was hand labeled with a sharpie, the packaging is a blue paper bag, and the bag is sealed with a band sticker. Maybe 50 cents of cost to create a CD that sells for a very reasonable $5. I like that business plan. The consumer gets a great bargain and the band keeps almost all of the money paid as profit. A list of the songs included with the CD would have been nice, but I easily found that on the internet. However, it soon became clear that the songs on my CD were burned in reverse order. Not backwards music like "Paul is dead, Paul is dead, Paul is dead...", but my track 1 on the album is the last song on my CD, track 2 is next to last on my CD, etc. Just a little glitch in quality control but at least all the songs are there.

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Here's a video of Brad Ward covering Townes Van Zandt's "Only Him or Me" at the show last night. I'll find a way to get a DVD of the videos to Brad and probably get DVDs to the guys in "TopherMan", but I may not even try to contact the touring bands about sending them the videos. As mentioned yesterday, both bands have plenty of really good videos plus these touring bands rarely seem interested in receiving the videos.

For example, there's a New York band that just played here a few weeks ago. The four videos I posted of them just about doubled their presence on YouTube. I wrote them a short email which included the following: "...Let me know if there are any that you want me to remove, and also let me know the names of the songs plus what address I can use to mail you a DVD of the video files...". I've received two emails in response saying that they like the videos and leave all four posted, but absolutely no mention of song titles or any indication that they would like copies. While I would still gladly mail the DVDs to the bands, it just seems pointless for me to make the offer when it's as tough as pulling teeth to get an address or even a response.

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First Person: My $50,000 Salary Felt Like Minimum Wage--Oh my, here's a Yahoo first person finance article by Laura Cone that definitely needs to be in the humor section. If you read the story you'll find that this poor woman is talking about $50,000 of take home pay feeling like minimum wage, not just a $50,000 salary. I'm sure many of you would like to have a net of $1,000 per week to work with in your budget.

The gist of the story is that going from a stay-at-home job to an office job involves extra costs that eat away at the extra income one might make. She writes about items that we all know about such as day care, commuting expenses, clothing costs, etc. Where she turns the article towards the absurd was talking about how the stress and strain of her job made it a necessity to get weekly massages and take expensive vacations. The job also required more money spent on hair coloring and getting her nails done. The extra time spent working meant the need to hire help for the lawn and house cleaning, plus an extra $150 per week spent on take out food because she was too tired and too rushed to cook.

Am I being too harsh? Read the article and judge for yourself. Judging by the comments section following the article, it appears that this is one time when my opinions are definitely with the vast majority. However, I don't go quite as far as the user "Wake Up" who posted this 5 word comment: "Laura, may I slap you?"

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Hawaiian singer surprises Obama summit with ‘Occupy’ song: Maybe I'll put myself back in my usually minority position with this post. The way this story is written it sounds like the singer was on stage and performing for an assembled crowd. However, since he talks about singing the same song for 40 minutes, I suspect he was one of many performers stationed here and there in a large area where guest were mingling and hardly paying attention to the musicians.

Maybe I've just gotten cynical, but do you think this guy's biggest motivation was personal instead of political? Here was a chance to create a viral video, a chance to go from being a relatively unknown singer to one with some national recognition. And what was the risk in singing his Occupy song at the event? No risk at all. Getting arrested or being forced to quit singing by burly security guards would have been the best possible thing that could have happened, not the worst. Talk about going viral, getting roughed up by security would have been absolutely fantastic.

The article says, "Makana released the song on the Internet the day before and decided to play it at the urging of fans, he said." Decided to play it at the urging of his fans. Really? You posted a really well made video the day before the dinner and didn't plan on singing the song at the dinner until your fans insisted? Come on, man--you created the video and timed the release and orchestrated the whole thing--don't give us that "urging of fans" BS. You saw a great opportunity to build name recognition and boost your career--a case of working the system to make a buck and a job well done. Capitalism lives.

The difference between reaching and overreaching

2011-11-13T21:30:00.001-06:00

Reaching for more in life is a good thing. The desire to better your circumstances, especially for a family with children, is something we all should have. The "better your circumstances" might mean more money, a bigger house, more travel, maybe it means less stress, more time together as a family, a pay cut to do a job that is more fulfilling, or a whole host of other changes in life.

Of course, reaching for more often involves making changes and making changes often involves taking risks. How do you know when reasonably reaching for more becomes overreaching that might lead to disaster? Is there a way to see that dividing line? Some people risk everything and come out a huge winner, others risk everything and come out with nothing but seemingly insurmountable problems. Fortunately, seemingly insurmountable problems are often ones that can be overcome with time, hard work, and making good choices.

Here are two stories about overreaching. Maybe the second story is one most readers can relate to the most because it is about the financial troubles many families are going through. Even if you don't have those problems, you are bound to know someone who has found the last few years difficult and we aren't out of the woods yet. My fear is that we have yet to hear the other shoe drop, but let's hope that I'm wrong about that.

Homecoming Blues at Ole Miss: Louisiana Tech is the type team SEC schools love to schedule for Homecoming. A sure victory in the middle of a day of festivity. The only problem with this plan is that Louisiana Tech has been coming up in football and Ole Miss has been sinking like a stone. This year's Ole Miss team probably needed to schedule Millsaps or Mississippi College if they wanted to guarantee a happy homecoming. Clearly that's an exaggeration, but at this point in time is there any Division 1 football team Ole Miss could look to for a guaranteed victory?

As a casual sports fan, it seems to me that the Ole Miss problems of today started when they greatly overreached 7 years ago. They had a good head coach in David Cutcliffe. He went 44-29 during his tenure, but was fired after going 4-7 in 2004. My impression was that Ole Miss fans wanted someone who could take Ole Miss back to the top and they felt like Cutcliffe wasn't that guy.

Turns out the Ed Orgeron also wasn't the guy. A great recruiter who couldn't coach, Orgeron went 10-25 during his 3 years at Ole Miss. That included just 2 wins over teams that finished the season with a winning record and a dismal 3-21 record in the SEC.

Turns out that Houston Nutt also wasn't the right guy. After winning early using the talent recruited by Orgeron (9-4 in 2008 and 2009), it seems that Nutt and his staff aren't capable of recruiting the players needed to compete in the toughest division of college football. In 2010 the record fell to 4-8 and the loss to Louisiana Tech drops Ole Miss to 2-7 for this season (victories against Southern Illinois and Fresno State). With LSU and MS State being the remaining teams on the schedule, 2-9 and 0-8 in the SEC seems to be the most likely ending for this season.

What will Ole Miss look for in their next coach? In most cases the idea of getting a coach who can consistently finish in the upper half of the division would be considered an overreach. However, in most cases a team doesn't play in a division where three of the teams have been national champions in the last 5 years and Arkansas is also building a program with possibilities of being a national champion. Right now, getting a coach who could match the 44-29 success that David Cutliffe had would be a great hiring success. Would that record be good enough for the Ole Miss fans the second time around? I doubt that we'll have the opportunity to find out.

How a Financial Pro Lost His House: If the man who wrote this article is a "financial pro", then he is also a person who doesn't practices what he preaches. He describes an approach to finances in his personal life that would make most of us wonder "what on earth was he thinking". The only problem is that way too many people were following his same line of thought.

There's no one story that covers all of the people who are struggling financially. This guy comes from the group who thought that housing prices would always go up, the group that desperately looked for ways to keep up with the Jones, the group that lived for today and never worried about what might happen tomorrow. He was enabled by banks that loaned 100% of the mortgage. The banks were enabled by government regulations that allowed bad loans to be bundled up and passed on to other institutions. I believe the theory behind these 100% loans was that the government wanted to make home ownership a possibility for everyone, an idealistic theory that was a disaster in the real world, but that's a topic I'm not qualified to write about.

Stories like this were happening all over the country. Down on the Gulf Coast people were buying condos with thoughts of selling them a year later and making a small fortune in profit. In many place the housing market became a pyramid scheme where those who got in early made the money, those getting in late were left holding the bag. Those people left holding the bag dropped the bag off at the doorstep of the banks. The banks moved the garbage on up the line.

In the end, who do we blame? The 1% is a very popular target. How about the minority segment of the 99% that lived beyond their means until they crashed the economy and caused hardships for majority of the 99% who had been doing all the right things? Or maybe the government for pushing banks into taking risks that they never would have taken if the buck stopped at the bank door? There seems to be lots of blame to go around, lots of missteps that got us into this mess. When people step back and look at the big picture instead of the popular targets, maybe the 99% can actually come together and get us out of this seemingly unsurmountable mess.

Should I Stay or Should I Go

2011-11-13T12:19:00.001-06:00

The above video has nothing to do with the rest of the post except that it fit in with the post title. It's around noon on Sunday and I'm wondering if I should stay home this evening or go out to a music event. The event promises to be great and bad--great music and a very bad turnout for bands of this caliber.

Here's the lineup for a show starting at 7 (or whenever) this evening at 121 Millsaps Avenue:

The Rocketboys: This Austin, TX band has 600,000+ hits on MySpace and over 4,000 likes on facebook. That doesn't automatically mean greatness, but it is a good indication of a band that is worth checking out. I have checked out their music and they are pretty dang good.

The Winter Sounds: A band from Nashville with about 350,000 MySpace hits and over 2,000 facebook likes. Again, these numbers are hints that this band is a cut above the norm--and based on a sampling of music I've heard, they are a cut above the norm.

TopherMan: A Christian rock band from the local area, I've listened to their music and it's very good. Musically, they seem to fit in well with the travelling bands, but it seems like they would draw a totally different crowd. Maybe that's the point in having them on the card.

Marlowe and the Sea: Local singer Brad Ward is "Marlowe and the Sea". I shot videos at his CD Release show last week. I like Brad's music a lot but don't understand why he was added as a 4th act to the lineup at the last minute. It's a Sunday night show and it seems like 4 acts will put "The Rocketboys" on stage sometime after some folks have left for home to get sleep before the start of a work week.

So that's the lineup and here's my situation. I've discovered that touring bands like "The Rocketboys" and "The Winter Sounds" have no interested in my videos. They already have plenty of very good videos shot in more impressive settings. With at least 80% of these touring bands, my offers to send them the videos free goes without a response. The local group "TopherMan" already has plenty of videos on their own channel on YouTube and I've shot almost 20 videos of Brad in the last couple of months so there's no real need to film them.

I could go and take videos just to practice and to add to my documentation of the Jackson, MS music scene. I could go just because the audience will probably be dreadfully small. Right now there are only 30 people listed as "Attending" on the facebook event page. That's a bad sign. Another bad sign is that half of those listed appear to be members of the bands that are performing. It's a Sunday night show in an area of town that is somewhat seedy, the cover is $8, and interest seems to be almost nil--plus, it's unlikely that I'll know more than two people at the show--do I really want to stay out late Sunday evening taking videos? I don't know. It will probably be up in the air until 6:30 this evening or later.

Topics, topics everywhere and not a one to post

2011-11-10T20:13:00.000-06:00

All day I've been coming up with ideas for the blog. The Penn State story. A few local news stories. Some music related stuff. A movie review after seeing "The Rum Diary" yesterday. Things that came up during multiple stops on the drive home today. Random thoughts that entertained me during the day.

Then I got home and felt like nothing I could write on any of these subjects would be of interest to any of you. Sometimes it feels like I have nothing to contribute that would be of interest to others and this is one of those times. Maybe it's just fatigue, both mental and physical burnout. Maybe it's just too many irons in the fire and feeling like my life is all a mishmash instead of having any focus. I'm glad the weekend is near.

Does Bryan Fischer think Mississippians are stupid?

2011-11-09T21:26:00.001-06:00

Bryan Fischer is from Tupelo, MS and his Twitter account describes him as the "Director of Issue Analysis, American Family Association; Host of Focal Point radio program on AFR Talk network". In his article Bryan Fischer: Why personhood failed, Mr. Fischer didn't actually use the word "stupid". It was just written between the lines as he talked about "naive, gullible Christians", "misguided, weak pastors", people fearful of self-condemnation if they supported Initiative 26, and "thousands and thousands of pro-life Mississippians" voting against Initiative 26 because Gov. Haley Barbour gave them permission to do so. It sure sounds like he thinks Mississippians are a dim-witted lot.

For those of you outside of Mississippi, Initiative 26 was on the statewide ballot this past Tuesday and here it is in its entirety:

Initiative 26: "Should the term 'person' be defined to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent thereof?"

If the initiative had passed instead of failing by a 58% to 42% margin, then this would be the definition of a person throughout all sections of Mississippi law. Would a fertilized egg therefore qualify as a dependent when filing a state income tax? Seems like it would. Would benefits based on size of family or number of children be expanded to include a fertilized egg? Seems like it would. Would potential child abuse charges take place before a woman even knew she was pregnant? Seems like it would. Would a state employee reach retirement age 9 months earlier under this new definition? Seems like someone would argue that point. The problem with Initiative 26 was that no one knew with any clarity just what would be the outcome of such a sweeping change.

In my opinion, the voters of Mississippi were not naive, gullible, weak, misguided, fearful of self-condemnation, or looking for permission to act. Those are traits the supporters of Initiative 26 were hoping to find in Mississippians when they decided on the overreaching wording of the proposal. Maybe that was naive thinking on the part of the writers of Initiative 26.

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One positive thing Initiative 26 did was that it generated a lot of thought and discussion about the issue of abortion. That seems like a good thing to me. My feelings on the subject are uncertain because I've never been faced with having to make a real life choice about abortion. I think this is one of those issues where most people don't truly know how they feel until they go from theory to reality.

I did come up with two questions about abortion/personhood that I think are worth asking, not in an effort to be argumentative, but because they seem to be logical conclusions to issues brought up by this initiative:

1) The argument being made with Initiative 26 is that a fertilized egg is the start of life. The large majority of fertilized eggs fail to implant or they spontaneously abort. Is this God's will that a person dies before getting a chance to experience life outside the womb? I struggle with this concept that it would be God's will to create so many people only to have God's will end up with the vast majority of these people dieing before childbirth.

2) When a child dies during delivery, isn't it our belief that the soul of this child goes to Heaven? The idea that the soul of such a child would go to Hell is something I can't accept. By the same token, wouldn't the result of an abortion be that the soul of that child goes to Heaven? I'm not saying this as an argument that abortion is good, but people talk about destroying a life when aren't we really talking about a life bypassing earth and going straight to Heaven?

It seems to me that a person who never leaves the womb is a person who has never sinned, and it seems to me that a person who has never sinned cannot be sent to Hell for eternity. That means an eternity in Heaven for those who die without sin, for those who die prior to child birth. I'm not sure that any amount of scripture quoting can get me to change my thinking on this issue.

General Assembly Training Video

2011-11-08T21:25:00.000-06:00

Training video on how to run a general assembly in your own community as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Hand signs, roles etc. This training session was held at Washington Square Park in New York City on October 8, 2011.

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It's unlikely that any blog reader will watch this 40 minute video. I watched it all, knowing that it would lead to a blog post and also would serve as a diversion while ironing clothes.

In general, the video is about the "general assembly" method of holding a meeting, getting business done efficiently, and involving everyone in the process. While the process is different, the goals are basically the same as with most meetings. I suspect the procedure described in the video works very well in some situations and is a disaster in others. The success or failure of a meeting is mainly determined by the skills of the leader and the willingness of the body to work in an efficient manner.

There were two things that caught my interest the most. The first item was the use of hand signals during the meeting. It's an interesting idea. Instead of verbal interruptions when someone is speaking, a listener gives hand signals if they want to give instant input. Hands in the air for approval of what's being said, hands straight out for being on the fence about a proposal, and hands down for disagreement. There are signals for the speaker to wrap it up, for vehemently disagreeing, for seeking permission to make a correction, etc.

My guess is that these hand signals are necessary when meeting outdoors in a noisy environment. Plus, it's better than everyone shouting at once. Also, it allows everyone to see the general acceptance or dislike of a proposal as it is being discussed. I can see the value of the system, but it would probably annoy the heck out of me if people were flashing dislike signs, or on the fence signs, or wrap it up signs during one of my presentations.

The second thing that caught my attention was the part about voting/not voting that came up near the 15 minute mark of the video. The idea is to pass things by general consensus rather than by actual vote counting. If someone strongly opposes a proposal, they can block the proposal and force a vote. The proposal then has to get a 90% or more affirmative votes in order to pass.

The way the speaker explained the "block" signal is that someone is saying they feel so strongly against the proposal that they will leave the group if it passes. By that description, a vote becomes a dual thing, deciding on whether to pass the proposal and whether to keep the individual who blocked it. That muddies up the water quite a bit.

Also, suppose it seems like 65-70% of the group are in favor of a proposal and the rest are lukewarm or somewhat against. Does this minority voice their opinion or go along with the majority in order to establish the needed general consensus? As the process was explained in the video, it sort of gave me the feeling that the right to disagree isn't really an option at some point in the process because of peer pressure or fear of being eased out of the group. Obviously I can't say this is the way it work in real life or with every General Assembly, but that's how it sounded to me. I suspect that over the long haul, one learns to get on board with the thoughts of the core group or else go find another group.

One last thing and like the above, it's an observation and not a criticism. While the General Assembly concept is that everyone in the group has a chance to be heard, I saw this comment posted under this video:

"everyone, yes, that would be hard to do with 2000. Which is why the NYC GA has now developed the spox model where each working group sends a speaker on their behalf to the spox council, where organizational matters are discussed. Mind you, that a spox is not a representative in the traditional model where the representative decides what his or her opinion is on something. A spox is a representative of their working group and has to represent the position the working group has come"

Now the above comment makes perfect sense to me. Trying to give everyone a voice in a group of 2,000 isn't possible, so you designate one person to represent the thoughts of many. Sounds like plain old government to me and the strength or weakness of the system all comes down to how well the "spox" represents the position of the folks who sent them. It's just the same when we elect people to represent us in the existing political system. Good representatives make for a good system, bad representatives make for a bad system. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

YouTube vs Blogger

2011-11-08T06:44:00.000-06:00

I took videos Sunday evening and started the uploads to YouTube Sunday night. I upload the very large original video files to YouTube because the YouTube help section says loading the originals results in the best quality. The problem with uploading the originals is that it takes somewhere between 30-40 hours to upload 60 minutes of videos. That's from my home computer where I have the fastest DSL offered by BellSouth. The Comcast business connection at work goes about 2.5 times faster.

Here's where this presents a problem regarding the blog. Google owns both YouTube and Blogger and they want to tie an individuals world all into one neat package. When I'm uploading music videos and I go to Blogger, it automatically logs me into the account for my music blog. If I sign out and log into the account for this blog, then Google automatically logs me into the YouTube account that is associated with my general day-to-day life. The result is that it messes up any music uploads that are going at that time.

It's a sign of the time, corporations wanting to link everything in an individuals life into that one neat package. Get on Yahoo and the ads that are displayed are custom designed for you based on your previous activities. Facebook wants to track every song you listen to, every place you been to, and every friend you know. Amazon seems to know what I want before I know that I want it, always sending me email ads of things that might be of interest to me.

All of this database building isn't very scary if one is a nobody--and I firmly fall into that category. But what's it going to be like 20-30 years from now when everyone using the internet has a gigantic profile built up from years of use? Who will be filtering through all of that stuff to gather dirt on their political opponent? Will stolen information and cyber-blackmail be a crime of the future? Privacy is getting hard to find and keep in this day and age. I suspect that 30 years from now privacy in an individuals life will be a thing of the past.

A Weekend Spent Clubbing

2011-11-07T06:47:00.000-06:00

I was out at concerts Friday, Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. Does this make me the coolest old person you know? Yes it does. Well actually, I'm a rather plain vanilla old person who happens to be working on a project that puts me in cool places. Here are a couple of observations from the weekend and then a recap of the music I saw and recorded.

Observation 1: I'm surprised at the number of times I go to a show and the musicians seem almost totally unprepared. Out of the 7 acts I saw this weekend, 2 seemed like they had hardly thought about the show in advance, 2 seemed like they had a vague idea of what they were going to do, and 3 seemed like they were really ready to put on a show. This is something I've seen before.

The unprepared are usually local bands who probably aren't being paid and they are playing the same songs in front of the same group of friends and family. It's okay for these shows to be loose, but often they come across as half-ass efforts. I'm thinking back to the days when I was playing sports and we were thrilled that anyone would show up to watch us play. It would have been embarrassing to have people show up and then we really didn't give much of a care (of course, with sports you have an opponent to keep you honest--goof around in athletics and the other team will do their best to embarrass you).

Observation 2: I was thinking about the difference between the Millsaps photo project and the music video project. The photo project was much harder because of all the editing and the feeling of having to cover various games even when I was already swamped with work. The equipment cost more, almost $10,000 over the years, but the expenses were low other than the huge amount of time invested. One good thing about the photo project was that getting the DVDs to the kids was easy. They all had campus mailboxes and it only took a few minutes to drop the DVDs off at the Millsaps post office.

The music video project has the advantage of very little editing. I do have time involved in uploading the files to YouTube, in getting the descriptions written and trying to track down the actual song titles, and a few other things, but it's not nearly as time consuming as the photo editing. The music video project has the disadvantage of being more expensive. Not with the equipment, which all total has been less than $1,500, but with the money spent at shows. The cover charges, beers, tips, and buying items from bands adds up in a hurry.

My tab this weekend for three shows was 49 dollars. The Friday night show was a rarity in that I spent no money. No cover and ended up not buying anything to drink. Saturday night was more typical with a $5 cover at the Ole Tavern, 2 beers at $3 each plus $2 is tips at the bar. That's $13 which is actually a little low for a show. Sunday I was at a show with a $5 cover, and then I spent $11 on drinks and tips, and $20 on t-shirts. Did I need t-shirts? No, but the touring band from Seattle needed gas money and I often buy items as a way of helping these bands make ends meet. I'm not sure if they sold anything to anyone else, which is the reason I bought 2 shirts this time instead of 1.

Well, those are my two observations. Below is a very brief recap of the shows I saw for those who are interested in the videos, etc.

Friday night--The Passing Parade and Marlowe and the Sea at Hal and Mal's:

I left a supper party with friends to get to this 9 o'clock show by 9:30, correctly guessing that the music wouldn't really start till close to 10. The Passing Parade is the duo of Cody Cox and Josh Taylor, and Marlowe and the Sea is Brad Ward plus friends. In this case the friends were Cody, Josh, and Jason Daniel. I consider all 4 of these musicians friends as well--not let's just hang out friends, but people I enjoy talking to when I see them at shows.

Saturday night--Banner Fair and Light Beam Rider at the Ole Tavern:

That's the Hattiesburg band "Banner Fair" in the video above. The Ole Tavern shows never start on time so I showed up at 10:30 for a 10 o'clock show. Naturally, this was one of those rare times when a band actually started on time. I got 2 videos from their show and then most of the songs by the Corinth, MS band "Light Beam Rider".

Sunday night--Adam "Bloodbird" Harrington, Guillermo!, and Big Eyes at the Eudora Welty Commons:

That's Bloodbird in the video above. His videos are loading right now, the other videos will load over the next few days. This show was a doors open at 4, music starts at 5 affair. I got there at 4:30 and saw the first musician show up at 5. The show finally started sometime after 6. I can't help but think that this vagueness about when show really are going to start is a negative when trying to get people to support local music.

Anyway, Bloodbird was good and my videos of him turned out well. The other two bands were two of the loudest trios I've ever heard. I really had to turn down the volume on my recorder to get anything acceptable. One thing I've learned is that the louder the band, the less you can actually hear the singing. Makes sense. If they turn the vocals up loud enough to be hear over the instruments then it would be way too loud when talking between songs or during the rare quieter parts of any songs.

---Okay, so that's my post which I won't proofread because it is 6:46 and I need to eat something before starting work at 7. If typos and grammer errors bother you, then play like this is a game to see who can find the most errors. Submit your answer in the comment section. The winner will will an imaginary prize of their choice.

A Thousand Trick-or-Treaters?

2011-11-03T21:11:00.000-05:00

Did any of you have 1,000 trick-or-treaters this past Monday? After looking at the videos from Halloween in Dallas, I'm starting to think that 1,000 kids stopped at David and Suzy's house for candy. I'm not sure if it was 1,000 different kids since there were some repeat customers, but not too many kids returned for a second treat so it could have been 1,000 individuals.

Look at the video and count how many kids get candy in a minute. It seems to be 10 or more per minute and their was a steady line of kids for most of the 150 minutes between 6:30 and 9 o'clock. The 22 big bags of candy were given out mostly at the rate of 1 item per kid and those bags seem like they hold somewhere close to 80-100 pieces of candy. Maybe my estimate of 1,000 trick-or-treaters is too low.

Here's another video taken about an hour after the first one--no letup in the crowd of kids seeking treats. You can't see the kids getting candy but you can count how many are exiting per minute and it still seems like 10 per minute isn't an exaggeration. This video starts out showing the Jack-o-lanterns. Mine is the very traditional one that involves straight lines only in the carving. David gets a lot fancier as you can see by the two Jack-o-Lanterns with the unique designs. Carving a pumpkin has never been one of my stronger talents.

Another winning night with Tiny Victories

2011-11-02T21:08:00.001-05:00

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I headed out to Sneaky Beans for a couple of beers and to shoot music videos last night. There were plenty of other things to do including a few things that really needed to be done, but Tuesday’s show was just about the perfect scenario for my music video project:

1) I listened to the band on YouTube and Bandcamp and liked their music.
2) The band hardly has any videos on YouTube.
3) This was an out-of-state band doing a Tuesday show that was hardly advertised because it was booked at the last minute. That combination usually means a crowd small enough that one extra body in the audience makes a significant difference. One extra body with a video camera makes a very significant difference.

That third item might cause a reflective mind to wonder. If this project is about “Jackson MS Music”, then shouldn’t the videos be of Jackson musicians or about touring bands that at least stirred up some interest during their stop in Jackson? That’s a good question and I have a good answer—the project isn’t really about the Jackson, MS music scene. Just as my Millsaps Sports Photos project was about the individual athletes instead of the school’s sports program, my music project is primarily about the individual musicians and not the overall Jackson music scene.

With most of my photo and video projects, the goal is to capture people doing something they love and to capture moments that a person will want to hold on to for the rest of their life. While it is possible that an image could be life changing for someone, that’s not what I’m really shooting for. I just want to provide an image that might make a person smile, might keep friendships a little closer, might give a person a lift during a down period, might remind a person of what they once achieved and hopefully inspire them to future successes. Hopefully some of the images captured will be a catalyst for something good in the future.

With that being my goal, does it matter if the people in my videos are from Fondren or from New York? Does it matter if they are people I know or total strangers? It seems to me that seeing a need and filling that need is the only thing that matters. Last weekend it was photos of great friends in Dallas. Last night it was two strangers from Brooklyn. This weekend it might be a mixture of friends and strangers. It's all about continuing to do the right things with whatever talents I have and the right results will follow.

Was that enough self-promoting? Enough of "look at me because I'm so wonderful"? Well honestly, I am pretty wonderful is some ways, but there are two sides of the equation with these projects that I do. The projects make me feel good, make me feel like I'm giving back something to the world. It's not quite on par with establishing world peace or finding a cure for cancer, but it's a little something that sometimes makes the world a better place. That sense of purpose is important to me so I'm gaining while I'm giving. It seems like a classic win-win scenario to me and hopefully everyone will keep on winning for another 10, 15 or 20 years.

Great Trip to Dallas

2011-11-01T19:11:00.003-05:00

My trip to Dallas was just what I needed. Too bad it came on the same weekend as a potential trip to New Orleans and a big 3 band CD release party at Hal and Mal's. Not that I regret the choice of going to Dallas by any means, it just would be nice if the big events were spread out over multiple weekends.

As is usually the case, the recap of the Dallas trip won't make any of you green with envy. Here's a general list of the events: watched Rangers lose, rearranged a bunch of paintings, saw the movie "Moneyball" (excellent), ate out a couple of times, spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon wandering on nature trails, watched the Cowboys lose, set up for Halloween, carved pumpkins, had about 600-700 trick-or-treaters who wiped out 22 big bags of candy, talked a lot, got lots of rest, and petted the dogs a bunch. All in all, I thought it was a great itinerary.

You can see the basic Halloween setup in this photo. The three ghost and a fog machine were a big hit this year. David carved the 2 fancy Jack-o-lanterns and I carved a very basic one that is blocked by the line of trick-or-treaters. There was a small motorized zombie on the front porch, some skulls and a skeleton and a werewolf hanging in the trees, and a few other things here and there. Fairly tame stuff unless you are in the 8 and below age group--you could tell that some of the younger ones got a little closer to their parents when walking past the ghosts.

A good time was had by all and Halloween night was a great ending to a great weekend. I was going to work on my photos this evening, a solid plan until I saw on facebook that "Tiny Victories" is playing at Sneaky Beans tonight. They are a Brooklyn duo that will probably draw very few people on a Tuesday night, plus they only have a couple of videos on YouTube--sort of makes me feel like I need to be at their show and the photos will have to wait till this weekend. Looks like vacation time is over and now it's time to get back to work.

Old Age is Upon Me

2011-10-27T21:01:00.001-05:00

---Wednesday night my friend Dick was telling me that his nephew’s car had been broken into and an iPad stolen. The iPad had been left in plain view on the passenger’s seat. According to the nephew, Dick was about the hundredth person to tell him to never leave valuables visible in a parked car.

I told Dick that it annoys me when I go upstairs to the bedroom at night and don’t have my wallet with me. This happens sometimes when I use the drive-thru service at Wendy’s and I don’t take the time to put my wallet back in my pocket. With this conversation fresh on my mind, I then proceeded to leave my wallet on the car dash overnight after picking up supper at Wendy’s on the way home.

---And speaking of cars, lately it seems like I’m fearful of channeling David Blaine when it comes to my car keys. I’ll get out of the car and put my car keys in my pocket, but 5 seconds later, just before shutting and locking the door, I have to reach back in my pocket to verify that the keys are actually there. Do I think that my pants have a magic pocket that might send the keys to parts unknown? It’s annoying as heck because I absolutely know that the keys are in my pocket, but the double check seems to now be a compulsive necessity. (BTW, The Spoiler, one of my all-time favorite wrestlers from back in the day when wrestling was a lot more entertaining, came from “parts unknown”.)

---The next item is a little different and is more about me being a little embarrassed that I sometimes act childishly despite being supposedly mature. Let me start with a story from about 23 years ago. A friend of mind was coaching a baseball team and he came up with the idea of giving “the hustle award” to a player after each game. Good in concept maybe, but bad in reality when dealing with a bunch of 10 year olds.

The reality was that just about every kid hustled during every game, so putting the spotlight on just one kid with “the hustle award”, it sort of diminished the efforts of the other nine. We adults knew this wasn’t the intent of the award, but in the mind of a 10 year old that was the interpretation of the results.

Okay, so recently I see a post on facebook where somebody is thanking a local photographer for posting photos taken at an event. My gut reaction was “so you think my videos at the same event were crap?” Gosh, what a childish reaction—and admittedly not the first or last time that I’ll have such a gut reaction. Don’t know if this makes me immature or just a typical human.

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Not much of a post tonight. Most was written here and there throughout the day. The next post won't be until Tuesday or Wednesday night. Yes, I'm actually taking somewhat of a mini-vacation. I guess that vacation actually started this evening with me resisting the urge to go hear a new band play, a band that is made up of musicians that I really like. Just too much to do this evening and I'm not going to stay up till midnight with a 420 mile drive ahead of me tomorrow. Planning to post this and get in bed by 9:15. Maybe I can even get 8 hours sleep and be rested to start my trip.

Small Start to Something Big

2011-10-26T20:24:00.000-05:00

I swapped facebook messages with Valley Gordon recently and she graciously thanked me for all that I was doing for the Jackson music community with my video. It made me think about how she was part of the beginning of the whole thing.

It was June 19, 2010, and my guess is that I was still burned out on photography after the Millsaps school year. Valley and Taylor were playing at the Fondren Market, just two blocks away from where I live, and I walked up the hill to hear them play. It was probably just a whim that made me try the video feature on my pocket camera during one of the songs. I also filmed a couple of videos of the next band.

The results were ho-hum at best and they didn't get me excited about taking videos, but they planted a seed. Six months later I was at the MS Blues Marathon Expo taking photos of the singers with all of my good camera equipment. Out of habit, I also had my pocket camera along with me. It dawned on me to give that video feature another try. The results were much better on my second go round (see below). Good enough that I soon started shopping for a good camcorder, then an external mic, and suddenly a compulsion was born.

Sometimes big things have the smallest of beginnings. Those videos in June, 2010 were just good enough that they encouraged me to try again in January, 2011. Those January videos were good enough to encourage me to make a serious effort on the videos. It all just sort of happened. Makes me wonder if the video project would be here at all if I had decided to sleep late on that Saturday morning instead of walking up the hill? I guess we'll never know.

Here's a video of Cadillac John Nolden and Bill Abel from that MS Blues Marathon Expo--too bad I didn't have my camcorder back then:

Buddy and the Squids: Tequila

2011-10-25T20:57:00.000-05:00

I know how unpopular videos are on the blog, but that may be all we get for the rest of the week. There's a lot to be done before my weekend trip. This band is "Buddy & the Squids", a new surf band in Jackson that is made up of some very talented musicians.

What I like about this "Tequila" video (aside from the music) is the little girl dancing at the beginning. It reminds me of Pee Wee in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure". I should have zoomed in on her at the beginning of the video, not the band. That was a big mistake on my part.

Recognition, Fatigue, and Halloween

2011-10-24T21:05:00.002-05:00

The above two videos were taken this past Friday when Jimbo M and the TSC performed here in Jackson. I can't spell out the band's full name because these videos are unlisted on YouTube and I don't want people finding this post while doing a search for the band.

This past June I filmed 70 minutes of this band playing in Ridgeland. It's still one of my better groups of videos and that playlist can be found HERE. Justin, the bass player and a former soccer player coached by Fred and me, wrote that the videos were the best fan videos that he had seen of the band. He really liked having the whole group of videos because he could use them to critique his performance, BUT the band might want me to take down some of the videos. You see, too many fan videos might cover up or dilute the videos actually posted by the band.

It's a good point except that my videos don't really get a lot of hits or dilute anything. One of the videos from June has about 500 hits but that's because it was embedded on several sites that did an album review. Without this kind of added exposure created by an external site or by the band itself, my videos go almost unnoticed. That's got me thinking that I should change my ways.

Maybe I should treat my videos as what they really are, tools that a band can choose to use or ignore. I sent DVDs to Justin today with 13 videos taken last Friday. Included with the DVD was a letter, and in the letter was the suggestion that maybe the band would be better off posting some of the videos on their site instead of me posting them to mine. If one of the goals of the videos is to help the bands, then they need to be on a site that will generate hits. That doesn't describe my site.

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Speaking of unseen videos, Alan left a comment yesterday about me possibly going to see "The New Orleans Bingo! Show". I did go to the show and filmed all but one number. Click HERE for the 12 video playlist. About half of the videos have an audio spike here and there. Not terrible, but it would make my recording skills look better if the playlist was cut down to the 6-8 best videos. However, that would deprive potential viewers of the full show experience. Maybe I'm on the wrong track with the number of videos I post. Maybe I should just post the top 2 videos from a show. My product wouldn't get so self-diluted and maybe quality instead of quantity is what I need to post for the bands.

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Fatigue. How many times do I write about that in a month? Today on the way home from work I stopped at Office Depot to buy some DVDs. Usually they have a brand on sale for half price, but they'll often run out towards the end of the week. While walking across the parking lot, it dawned on me that I didn't know if this was the beginning of the week or the end. Instead of looking at my watch for the answer, I tried to come up with the day and just wasn't certain.

Scary, isn't it. Part of the explanation is that I spent time at the office on both Saturday and Sunday. Also, since television isn't a part of my life, I don't have those markers of watching particular shows on certain nights. Plus, my life is mostly about going from task to task without stepping back and seeing the big picture or having a set routine. In a way it doesn't worry me that I get disoriented about the days of the week, but maybe it should worry me a lot.

Is it the onset of brain failure? Possibly, but at this point in time I suspect chronic fatigue. I once bought a off-brand battery for a camera. The battery seemed okay at first, but then quickly got to the point where it drained quickly. Recharge it, put it in the camera, and the reading showed a fully charged battery good for several hundred photos. Take 10 photos and the battery was almost out of juice. That's a good depiction of my typical day.

After the Office Depot stop, I got home and couldn't keep my eyes open while sitting at the computer. So I crawled into bed for a two hour nap till 7. That will give me 4-5 hours of energy, letting me get this posted, giving me time to email some musicians about song titles, and then I have to pay some bills online. Maybe I'll be in bed at 11, then most likely I'll be up at least once during the night before starting to get ready for work around 5:30. It's likely that tomorrow at some point during the work day I will desperately need a nap, or the substitute of eating candy in an effort to just stay awake.

Fortunately, there is a solution of sorts on the horizon. I'll be in Dallas for Halloween. While this will surround me with tons of the candy that is usually used to jolt my system in 15 minute spurts, the bigger solution to my fatigue problem is that being in Dallas takes me away from Jackson. Takes me away from all the things that I chose to do that keep me fatigued. Forces me to rest for 3-4 days. My nights in Dallas are just about the only time all year that I actually sleep straight through the night. Four nights in Dallas will do me a world of good. It might even get me rested enough to remember the day of the week--at least for a few weeks or so.

Do I Want Recognition?

2011-10-23T14:01:00.001-05:00

Hardly anyone received much recognition before the internet came along. There was a small group that might have occasionally popped up in the Society Section of the newspaper, and the various leaders of a community would be pictured now and then, but most of us didn’t worry about recognition because there was little to be had.

Things changed with the internet. Now everyone has a shot at some sort of “15 minutes of fame”. Every writer has a venue for their work. Every photographer and film maker has access to a billion potential viewers. For those who want recognition, a viral video will turn a nobody into a somebody overnight. Now that recognition is a more realistic possibility for the masses, the question becomes “do you want recognition”?

I’ve struggled with this question. While I might say that recognition isn’t my goal, I have written the words “Photos by Frank Ezelle” or “Videos by Frank Ezelle” on at least 3,000 CD/DVD’s that have been given away. If recognition isn’t important, then why take the time to make sure everyone knows the creator of the photos and videos?

From a practical standpoint, there are valid reasons to label my work. It allows people to contact me if there’s a question about an item or if they need permission to use that item. It also may bring about opportunities for me that wouldn’t open up if all my work was anonymous. And like everyone else, there’s a part of me that does want some credit for my efforts. I guess that’s a desire for recognition, but it isn’t the same as wanting accolades and fame.

During a recent conversation I said something about trying to find a way to get more people to look at the music videos so the bands would get more exposure. The other person said, “yeah, and that would be good exposure for you”. My gut impulse to this comment was that I don’t want more exposure. Even more recently, someone suggested that I would be a good person to write a music column for a new project in the works. This past weekend someone talked about doing an interview with me for a piece in a blog they write. These all seem like things that would make my life worse, not better.

If my photography and video activities were about ways of making more money, then recognition and more job requests would be good. Since all my work is done for free, more job requests is the last thing I’m looking for—I’m doing quite well at overworking myself as an unknown so more requests are hardly needed. And before it starts sounding like I’m campaigning for sainthood, let me just say that when I’m doing for others it is also doing for me. There’s a need that we all have to feel like we are making a contribution during our time here on earth. Doing what I do gives me the feeling that I’m making a contribution.

BUT WAIT, there is a part of me that rears its ugly head from time to time. Is it envy, or self-pity, or just that good old competitive nature? I don’t know, but sometimes it bugs the heck out of me when my photos on flickr get 3 total views and something crappy (in my opinion) gets 300 views. It bugs me when my photos on facebook don’t get near the amount of praise that someone else gets when they post a casual snapshot taken with an iphone. And it really bugs me when most of my music videos struggle to top 100 hits but someone can get 300 hits on YouTube with a video warning about the extinct volcano underneath Jackson. I think my life would be happier if hit counters had never been invented.

(And for those who are now worried about the volcano below Jackson, here is that video--it sounds like we dodge a bullet in September.)

The Hangover that Always Follows

2011-10-20T18:43:00.000-05:00

Whenever my life seems to be going great, there is some sort of crash. It might be a one day crash, a week long crash, or just a sinking feeling that hits me from time to time over the course of several days. Today felt like one of those crashes.

Now before anyone is alarmed by this, keep in mind the part about "whenever my life seems to be going great". The last week has been great. Starting on Thursday of last week I recorded 12 musical acts. It was a mixture of friends, strangers, people I've recorded several times in the past and ones who were being captured for the first time.

Also, it seems like I've been having great conversations lately with a wide variety of people. Interesting visits with Mother, discussions with some of the musicians, the Wednesday night crowd last night was full of great subjects--when one lives alone, having a great conversation is something of great value.

So what could go wrong when all seems to be going so well? I think it is a mix of things:

---One thing is that all of the nights spent recording and the time spent working on the videos often leaves me very tired. The rest of my world doesn't stop and I can't burn up my vacation hours week after week. When my life is going great and I'm engaged in a lot of things, it often leaves me totally drained.

---When my life is going great, I think it reminds me of how mundane my job really is. It's a good job in a lot of ways, but it isn't one that offers a lot of variety or connects me with people who share my same interest. Would anyone at work like the Spacewolf video above (or the video below)? I don't think so. My co-workers are great people, but there just hasn't been much in the way of really deep conversations at the workplace since Gordon left and that was over 5 years ago.

---As has happened over and over again, when I get more engaged in my projects, my health tends to take a nosedive. And by health I'm mostly referring to trying to get the weight off and maybe do a little bit of walking or some other form of exercise. I'm always tired so I eat. I do so much work for others that somehow this justifies giving myself a treat in the form of food that I do not need. There's not logical reason that this sort of backsliding to happen, but it happens anyway.

So anyway, today all of these things hit me at work and I was really in a funk. Couldn't wait to get home and just get in bed. Then I saw that the "New Orleans Bingo! Show" is playing at Hal and Mal's tonight. Bet they don't go on stage till 10 or later, and for sure they don't need me to take videos of them, but it seems like a group that one shouldn't miss. Maybe I'll be in a funk tomorrow at work, but tonight I'll have fun and there's music on the schedule for Friday and Saturday night. This pace is killing me, but one can't let life pass them by. Someday this overworked lifestyle will catch up with me, but tonight probably won't be the night.

I'm an Overachiever

2011-10-19T20:52:00.000-05:00

Today was one of those days when it was clear that I've overachieved in regards to the friends I keep. It's nice to have them as part of my life.

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Between Thursday and Sunday, I recorded 12 musical acts that included a total of 27 musicians. Some of these people fall into the total strangers group, others are acquaintances, and others are friends. Here are a couple of videos I like from two individuals in the friends category:

Owen Beverly--Blown Away

Taylor Hildebrand--After the Fall

Returning to Familiar Surroundings

2011-10-18T20:06:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I posted a video of singer Dent May performing at the Parlor Market BBQ Birthday Bash. At the time I mentioned that his parents are friends of mine. Maybe it wasn't mentioned that his parents live in the house that was built by my grandparents in 1922.

That house was always full of Ezelle grandchildren. My family lived about a mile to the east of the house, my 4 Ezelle cousins lived about a mile to the west, the elementary school and middle school we all attended were just 3-4 blocks away. In an era of kids being allowed to roam freely on foot or by bike, my grandparent's house with the big side yard and cold drinks in the refrigerator was always a popular destination.

Soon after that Dent May performance I had DVDs burned and ready to deliver to his parents. Now I wasn't going to ask for a tour of the house when dropping off those DVDs, but it was a great thrill when Dent's mom Merideth invited me in to have a look around. First time I had been in that house in over 30 years. What a treat to see a place where I had spent hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of my childhood. What a really, really, really fantastic treat.

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This Saturday there's going to be a house party in Jackson with New York singer Jarrod Gorbel as the musical guest. I received an invitation to the event because the host had seen some of the videos I've posted, in particular the recent ones of Sanders Bohlke. The way this particular house party event works is that you send in a commitment to attend to the singer's manager and then you get an email back with the house address if the event hasn't already sold out (limited space for only about 20-30 listeners). It is a paid event and I presume that we pay at the door.

Today I got my email back saying that I was on the attendee list and giving me the house address. It was an address that looked familiar right away and well it should. The above photo was taken in that house. Bill and Dot Gober had me over for supper and visits on numerous occasions. The rock garden in the small back yard was populated with many rocks that I had brought back for Dot during my travelling years. It is a house that means something special to me and this will be the first time in about 30 years that I set foot inside.

It's an odd coincidence, isn't it? Two places that provided great memories in my life and I'm revisiting them both this month. The Gober house won't be the same as my grandparent's house. Details of my grandparent's house are etched deeply in my memory, not so with the Gober's house. I'm wondering just how familiar things will look and feel when I walk in that door Saturday night. Maybe I'll feel nothing special at all by the surroundings, but it will be special to be in a place that was once shared with people I loved and people who loved me.

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Here's another thing I'm wondering about Saturday night. Jarrod Gorbel is sort of a big deal. At least a big enough deal that he doesn't have any need for videos from a fan. In my email to his manager I asked about taking videos and the response was that it would be okay if I limited it to just 3 songs. My gut feeling is that they would prefer me to take zero, but since I have the YouTube site and the blog and all, they are making a gracious exception by letting me record three songs.

With them not needing any videos, maybe I'll leave the camcorder at home and try to spend an evening like a normal music lover. Can I just sit there and listen, or will I get antsy without a camcorder in my hand? I don't know. I do know that after years of photographing sporting events, it is very difficult to just sit and watch a game. If I have a camera with me at a sporting event, the end result is that I almost always start taking photos because I'm not happy just being a spectator. Maybe we'll find out this Saturday if I'm still able to find joy by just listening to the music and watching the show.

Here's a Jarrod Gorbel video (you can see why he doesn't need any videos from me):

Beauty in the Sadness

2011-10-17T21:09:00.000-05:00

The band in the above video is Liver Mousse, the Jackson, MS duo of Caitlin McNally and Cody Cox. This video was shot yesterday afternoon. When I shoot videos, my glasses are off and my eyes are fixed on the 3" camcorder screen. It's hard to see the details on a 3" screen and with my 20/400 vision, I see absolutely no details when looking at the musicians on stage.

So I'm recording this song yesterday and Caitlin starts off with, "Some times I get so sad...". Now Caitlin has a beautiful voice and I remember thinking, "wow, this beginning is a little off tune". What I couldn't see on my 3" screen was that Caitlin was crying. That's because she has a beautiful heart to go along with that voice. This performance was part of a benefit event for a friend recently diagnosed with cancer and this song was straight from her heart to his.

Thinking about this video got me thinking about the benefit event and how many people had pitched in to help. That got me thinking about the younger generation in America. Over the last 7 years I've spent a lot of time around people who are half my age or younger. First it was when taking photos of athletics at Millsaps for 5 or 6 years and in the last couple of years I've been taking photos and videos of musicians. With my 60th birthday just around the corner, the stereotype says that I should be talking to my peer group about all the shortcomings of the younger generation. But instead of shortcomings, I see a lot of positives.

Whether it's the 20ish age group from Millsaps or the 30ish age group from the world of Fondren and Jackson music, what I've seen are a lot of smart, talented, energetic and caring people. While I do have some concerns about where the world is headed in the future, I have no concerns when it comes to the high quality of the folks who are next in line when it comes to trying to make the world a better place.

By the way, after this sad song there was a break in the music for this group hug on stage between Caitlin, Cody, and Donovan, the man of the hour:

I've Become a Lo-Fi Guy

2011-10-16T21:33:00.001-05:00

According to Wikipedia: "Low fidelity or lo-fi describes a sound recording which contains technical flaws such as distortion, hum, or background noise, or limited frequency response. The term "low-fidelity" is used in contrast to the audiophile term high fidelity or "hi-fi", which refers to stereo equipment that very accurately reproduces music without harmonic distortion or unwanted frequency emphasis or resonance."

"Lo-fi" describes my videos even as I continue to get better with the audio portion of my recordings. "Lo-fi" describes all of the live music I hear. That live music is always being mixed in with things like the sound of multiple conversations, bottles being thrown in the trash, cars passing by, helicopters passing overhead, and car alarms going off in the background. "Lo-fi" describes the type of music that I now prefer the most in my life.

Sunday afternoon I was in the shower and "Lightning Crashes" by Live came on the radio. Oh my gosh, how I love that song. It is so freaking awesome as is most of the "Throwing Copper" album. A copy of that "Throwing Copper" CD is in my bedroom, a digital copy is on an external hard drive at work, and listening to all of those songs would be pure pleasure--but the music of Live is now just too far down on the list of music I want to play. Live is buried on the list down below bands like Furrows, Spacewolf, Passenger Jones, the Bailey Brothers, and singers like Taylor Hildebrand, Johnny Bertram, Owen Beverly, Sanders Bohlke and dozens of others.

You see, I know and like these local musicians. I like hearing and watching the videos from the shows I've recorded here in Jackson. The combination of people I like doing something they love--there's a element there that makes their music more special to me than the 10,000+ songs I have available from hundreds of major acts of the last 40 years. Now don't get me wrong. I still love most of those 10,000+ songs and hearing a song like Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" or Cream's "Badge" on the radio always gives me a spark in my heart, but when I'm the one picking the music I almost always listen to a local band or one of the many smaller bands that has recently played in the Jackson area. They also give me a great feeling.

So, even though I absolutely love Cyndi Lauper's cover of the Roy Orbison song "I Drove All Night", my favorite version of the song is the Owen Beverly cover seen in the video above. Admittedly the above cover is very lo-fi compared to Cyndi's version, but Owen is my friend, his career is one that I enjoy supporting, and the video brings back memories of a fun evening in Fondren. Those are extra ingredient that aren't found in my Cyndi Lauper CD. I still love her music and think she is fantastic, but give me the "lo-fi" music that can be found in Jackson ever week of the year. All of you should give this type of music a try in your hometown--you might be surprised by how much you like it.

(BTW, if Cyndi wants to come to Jackson and sing "I Drove All Night" on the front deck at Sneaky Beans Coffee Shop some Thursday evening, then I might have to put her cover back on top of the list. But don't worry Owen, you would still be ahead of the Celine Dion version--which isn't really saying a lot since Celine's version is a joke compared to the Lauper cover and Roy Orbison original.)

How to Create Wealth

2011-10-13T19:18:00.000-05:00

Okay, I apologize right from the start because this is another post about wealth, and that automatically makes it political in our current environment, and writing anything political on the blog means increasing the possibility of upsetting some readers.

A person I like posted this on facebook today: "lets not buy ANYTHING but what we truly need to survive. we dont need extravagance, every new gadget, new jeans, expensive shampoo, new teva's or combat boots, a brand new car, a big truk, name brands, get all of your money out of the bank in cash. keep $5 in the bank for now. don't drive excessively. here is a time where it's ok to care, and even better to care deeply. you can't ignore what is happening. join in movement ♥ Mississippians, Occupy Mississippi begins this Saturday at Smith Park downtown at 7 am."

I probably shouldn't have added a comment, but here's the comment I made and it is 100% true: "Ironically, if the 99% did as you are suggesting we would soon have more wealth than the 1%."

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This is the thing that has been really bugging me about all this talk about wealth. For the very vast majority, wealth is readily available if they will just make saving and cutting back a part of their lifestyle. I'm not talking about Bill Gates type of wealth, but the kind of nest egg that can get a family through rough years like the last few, and a nest egg that will allow a person to retire and be comfortable in their later years. I'm not saying that creating wealth is an easy choice, or even the right choice, but having wealth or not is a choice for almost everyone in this country.

Look, when I was in my late-20's and again in my late-30's my wealth was very low, especially when it came to having any cash in reserve. Was that the fault of Wall Street? Or was that more the fault of me not working for 2 years in my late twenties and then working part time for several years during my mid-30's? I don't regret my decisions to work sporadically at times in my life, but I also don't blame anyone else for the fact that my choice led to a lack of wealth.

Over the last 20 years I've tried to make up for lost time, saving what I could during the 90's and of late I've been putting 40% of my paycheck into my 401(k) account. That builds wealth in a hurry, but it also means no new cars, a somewhat crummy apartment, and basically none of the finer things in life other than what I spend on camera equipment. The top 1% of the wealth holders in this country have no power at all when it comes to me deciding to build wealth or deciding to live at or above my means.

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I've been thinking about my friend David lately because he is definitely in that evil 1% of the top wealth holders in this country. David was broke during his first few years after college and his Fiat was always broke down. He moved to Dallas and got a small one room apartment, hanging sheets across the center of the room to create a tiny bedroom/den combination. Next he moved in with friends to an apartment that got so hot in the summer that the peanut butter would liquefy during the day and solidify at night.

David was working for a Dallas architecture firm and he and a friend decided to quit their jobs and form a partnership. Two young guys without a lot of experience or connections, but they did have one project lined up that would keep them in business for about 9 months. They worked their tales off to get that one project done and to find any new projects to keep the business alive. I'm sure that 80 hour work weeks were the norm. Maybe that was an easy week. At some point they hired a part time person, and eventually they added another full time architect. Then another and another. It was never easy and their work load never cut back to 40 hour weeks, but now they are running a firm with well over 100 employees. That's 100 families paying their bills thanks to a company that two guys started from scratch.

Over the last couple of years I've asked David from time to time how the business is doing. He doesn't talk about the profits and losses, he talks about how they are trying to do whatever it takes to keep from laying off any employees. A couple of years ago they did have to lay off some people for the first time in the company's history and David said that was the hardest thing he has ever had to do in the business. That hardly sounds like an evil 1% guy not caring about the other 99%.

Now David has grown his wealth considerably over the years. Can anyone out there tell me why this suddenly makes him part of the problem in this country? He started at zero, took a risk, worked twice as hard as most of us have ever worked, he and his partner have created good jobs over the last couple of decades for many in his community--my gosh, he is a role model instead of a problem.

And here's another thing--how has the increase in his wealth hindered anyone else from creating their own wealth? In reality, by creating good jobs and by doing all he can to keep those jobs going during this bad economy, he is giving people the opportunity to create wealth. Those employees then decided what they want to do with that opportunity.

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I'll get off my soapbox is just a minute and then will almost certainly never write about this subject again. Here's a link to the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list. Look at the list and you'll find so many people who did the exact same thing as David and just grew it much larger: took a risk, work far harder than the average person, created wealth for themselves and opportunities for hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of people. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg, Paul Allen, Phil Knight, Steve Jobs, Ralph Lauren, Oprah Winfrey--their wealth hasn't come at the expense of others being able to create wealth. They've created jobs that give people a better chance to create their own slice of wealth. What's so bad about that?

Okay, as I'm stepping down from the soapbox, let me return to the very beginning of this post. The facebook post made by my friend is very, very good advice (except for the part about keeping all your wealth stashed away in cash). What I would say about her advice is that these aren't things that one should do to stick it to the establishment, these are things one should do to establish their own solid foundation for the future. Wealth creation is a choice for most of those in the 99%, and getting more of those 99% to make that choice is the real movement this country needs.

(Note: I should add that all comments, preferably civil, are welcome, but the comment section on this blog is problematic. I can only post under the Anonymous option and I've learned that a Ctrl-c copy of the comment is advisable before hitting post. Sometimes the comments just don't post. It seems to work better if you hit "preview", let it bring that up, and then hit "post", but that's not 100% foolproof.)

Dragonflies are better than Politics

2011-10-12T21:21:00.000-05:00

I've tried very hard to write about the subject of "Wealth". There seems to be a real class warfare attempt going on with this talk about how much wealth the rich have and how little wealth the rest of us have. That lack of wealth by the vast majority is mostly a self-inflicted wound. The wealth of the top 1% has very little or nothing to do with the wealth accumulated by the other 99%.

........Well, I just erased 3 paragraphs. No point in saving them since I have two posts written on this subject that will never get posted. Building wealth is basically the concept of living below your means for a long period of time and letting that amount you saved each year grow into a nice nest egg. I understand why people don't want to do this, especially those of you with children, but that's the reality of the situation. But shoot, who wants to hear any of that--go back up to the top and look at the pretty dragonfly.

Spider 1, Wasp Hound 0

2011-10-11T20:50:00.001-05:00

After seeing this spider today, and especially after seeing the greatly enlarged version on my computer screen, maybe I'll be a little more careful about going here and there in the field looking for bugs to photograph.

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I'm really, really tired a little earlier in the week than usual. Got to get to bed by 9 and it is 8:54 right now.

Garbage or Art--It's All in the Eyes of the Beholder

2011-10-10T21:57:00.000-05:00

I have a blog post written about math, but since the math involves a political issue my gut feeling is that the post has too much potential to tick people off. There's really nothing good that ever comes from writing about politics.

So instead, I've posted this video of garbage that might still be garbage in the eyes of some, and it might be art in the eyes of others. I just turned the camera on and did a walk through of the Midtown Debris Organization building and then later added the audio with Windows Movie Maker. It's not a bad result for such little effort.

Here's more info on the project taken from their facebook page:

The Midtown Debris Organization is fascinated by the artifacts which lie along the pathways of the Midtown community.

Lead organizers Travis Pinkston and daniel johnson direct operations at 147 Millsaps Avenue collecting and organizing Midtown debris with the aid of other volunteer organizers. The collection is sorted and organized by type creating a novel document of the community. Once arranged in this manner, the debris are further organized by aesthetic and symbolic association by Travis, daniel, and other volunteer organizers.

To become a volunteer organizer, merely visit during business hours (Note: this past Saturday was the last day of the project).

Monday and Wednesday 6am-9am
Friday 6am-9am & 3pm-6pm
Saturday 10am-2pm

The MDO is always open to spontaneous creativity especially on Saturdays when special craft and performance events are often planned.

Happy Birthday Daddy and Beth!!!

2011-10-10T05:00:00.003-05:00

Today would have been my father's 98th birthday. His mother lived to be 98 but unfortunately my dad died just after his 66th birthday. If you asked me to give a short description of Daddy I would give you 7 words: "An ordinary man who did extraordinary things."

I mean no disrespect by calling my dad ordinary. Let's face it, by societies standards just about all of us are ordinary when it comes to looks, physique, brains, etc. Daddy was just a middle-of-the-pack kind of guy in a lot of ways. But then again, he was extraordinary in ways that were not quite as easy to see. Things like his conviction when it came to matters of right and wrong. Things like his courage when he wasn't deterred by death threats even though he had nothing much to gain personally by staying the course. His willingness to serve was extraordinary--he serve as President and/or on the board of just about every major charity in town as well as in positions of leadership with his church, all levels of education, and in the business community. More details of all this can be found in this biography and these comments from Daddy's memorial service.

While I naturally miss my dad and really hate that his grandchildren never got to know him, I also feel like Daddy has never really been out of my life. So much of the what I do and who I am is just a reflection of the example my dad gave to all of us kids when we were growing up. People sometimes say with dismay that they are "turning into their parents", but in my case I could not think of a better compliment or a higher standard to try and meet.

Before moving on to the next birthday, I should mention something about the above photo. My guess is that it was taken in 1959, the year when all the stylish individuals were sporting bow ties and suspenders. This photo has been on the blog before so maybe you remember the story about the Jackson Zoo. On nice spring days us kids always tried to talk our parents into taking us to the zoo after Sunday School instead of making us go to the 11 o'clock church service. This was one of those days when our "prayers were answered".

That's Will on the left, me in the middle, Fred on the right, and Daddy is holding Isabelle. Mother is obviously taking the photo. This photo has always fascinated me because it makes me look like a rugged kid with a lot of confidence in myself. Nothing could have been further from the truth, but maybe on this one day I was a kid with a lot of swagger. More likely, it was a case of a photo being taken at just the right angle and just the right moment and it gave a totally false reflection of reality.

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I wish this beautiful photo was one of mine, but this is a photo I "borrowed" from Beth Hood's facebook page. Beth, the daughter of Rusty and Sara, is 21 today!!!!!!!!!!YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember what it was like to turn 21--no wait, I don't really remember much at all about what it was like to turn 21. I do remember that it is the last benchmark we use to separate kids from adults, but in this case I would say that Beth made that transformation to an adult well before now. She's smart, mature and talented and I know she will do great things in this world. Happy Birthday Beth!

Taking Photos at a 3 Doors Down Concert

2011-10-09T19:39:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I was getting ready for work and I heard that Jack 94.7 FM was giving one person the chance to take photos at the upcoming "3 Doors Down" concert. Naturally that meant getting tickets to the concert and it even included meeting the band, but for me the big prize was a pass to the photographer's pit.

To may way of thinking, I was the perfect choice to serve as the "Jack FM Photographer". First off, I love "3 Doors Down" and have been a fan since they first hit it big. Also, I have all the right camera equipment and I took somewhat official photos at the 2008 Jubilee Jam--there's no doubt that I would get them great photos of the concert. Plus, who in Jackson is more deserving of receiving a musical treat like this? In recent years I've given away thousands of photos to local musicians and this year I've taken over 800 videos of musicians in the Jackson area. Is there anyone volunteering more time and energy to support the Jackson music scene? Maybe some, but not many.

The more I thought about the contest, the more I was certain that it was my destiny to be at that concert taking photos. But alas, when I went to the Jack website it turned out that they didn't care a thing about camera equipment or experience or how much one might have given to the music community. All they wanted was an email address. Destiny went out the window once my email went into a pool with hundreds of teenagers who think that an iPhone is all that is necessary to capture images in this world.

A check of the Jack website this evening revealed this announcement: "Everyone needs to congratulate Rosa Kratochil she is our 3 Doors Down JACK FM Photographer!!!" Well Rosa, congratulations. Maybe it's for the best. Going to a big time concert this Saturday and taking photos of a big time band would have been a thrill, but do the guys in "3 Doors Down" really need more photos to go along with the tens of thousands that are already available? That seems unlikely.

On the other hand, Friday night there's a house show in Jackson with musicians Stefan Fink, Rye N' Clover, and Edwin McAllister. I'm thinking there's a decent chance that they would appreciate me showing up and taking videos. Then on Sunday there's a benefit event to help with Donovan C's medical expenses and my plan is to be there taking videos of some local bands and pitching in on the fund raising. It won't be as glamorous as a concert in the Jackson Coliseum, but it will be more important and it will be a place where my contributions might make a difference. It will be a busy weekend and I'll have a good time--and hopefully Rosa K will have a blast as well in her role as JACK FM Photographer this Saturday night.

Wood Spider: Hell Bound Train Video

2011-10-09T17:13:00.000-05:00

The way I look at it, the weekday posts are the official posts for the blog and anything added on the weekend is just lagniappe that doesn't really have to fit or appeal to anyone except myself.

I was looking on YouTube for videos of Stefan Fink since he'll be playing in Jackson this Friday. Somewhere in my searching I ran across a video where Stefan shared the evening with a band named "Wood Spider". I think both also record with the same record label. Anyway, that led me to look at a couple of "Wood Spider" videos. I'm not sure if I like this band or not, but they certainly are different and interesting. Also, in this video they have drawn a large and enthusiastic crowd that most of our local bands would love to have so they must be doing something right.

Two Terrific and Very Different Videos

2011-10-08T19:59:00.000-05:00

I don't spend all day looking at videos on YouTube but I am on that website quite often working on my own stuff. The William Haun YouTube channel showed up as a recommended channel and I checked it out. This "Flee of Fight" video by MATRIMONY really held my attention despite being rather lengthy. That's partly because I like the song, and partly because of the video style. More and more I'm thinking that I've got to do something more creative with my videos. Of course, that means more time spent on each video. Would it be better to work on making one video special or recording ten videos for a band? Would it be better to deal with one band every week or two, or two or more bands every week? It doesn't seem like I'm in a position to make any changes right now, but it's something to keep in mind.

The second video is totally different and has had very few YouTube hits. I saw that Ming Donkey was playing in Memphis tonight at the Poplar Lounge. I was curious about that venue so I check out the facebook page for the lounge. That's when I saw a link for the following video. It is very low tech and in black-and-white. It was probably made with a flip camcorder or the video option on a phone and it has the perfect look for the setting and the punk rock band. Once again, I don't really have time to experiment with a wide variety of video styles, but this is a reminder that it isn't all about having better equipment to produce higher quality. Here are the "Useless Eaters" at the Popular Lounge:

Rye 'n Clover: Mourning Song

2011-10-07T21:22:00.000-05:00

"Rye 'n Clover" is the stage name for banjo playing singer Ryan Clover of Ithaca, NY. Ryan will be playing in Jackson next week so I was checking out some videos on YouTube.

While the sound in the video above is quite good, the visuals are just a mess. At least that's what I thought initially. It keeps going in and out of focus, it goes from color to silhouette, and you can hardly see Ryan's face for most of the video. It might be a bit of a mess, but it is an interesting couple of minutes of video.

Now if it had been me filming, I would have gotten there early and sat right in front so there would be a nice backdrop and no issues with the sun. I would have stayed focused on Ryan and in focus the whole time. There would be a little zooming here and there, maybe a closeup of Ryan, then a closeup of his picking, then pull back a bit. It would have been very nice--and probably very boring.

My photography and videos are usually very nice, and they usually don't excite anyone. I don't tilt the camera at an odd angle, don't use photoshop to greatly alter the image, don't go for those gimmicks like the hipstamatic app or using a Holga toy camera. Sometimes I think about trying to imitate the non-conformist images that I see--it would have to be imitation because it's a style that would never be natural to me--but then I realize that the results would look like bad imitations to everyone else and they would look like crappy work to me. What would be the point in doing that?

I guess I'll just stick with my basic plain vanilla style. Since I always say that my photos and videos are really about giving people something that they'll enjoy decades into the future, maybe basic isn't so bad. In a few decades all the hipsters of today will be plain vanilla. When that day comes maybe my stuff won't look so blah.

Tonight's Fondren After 5

2011-10-06T19:43:00.001-05:00

The first Thursday of each month is "Fondren After 5". That's a special evening in the Fondren Business District where many of the businesses stay open in the evening and have some sort of special event. Sneaky Beans Coffee Shop is one of the most loyal of the merchants when it comes to supporting "Fondren After 5". They always have some sort of music event even in the middle of the winter when a lot of the stores don't participate and not a lot of potential customers brave the cold weather.

For tonight's "Fondren After 5", Sneaky Beans scheduled a particularly appealing lineup. Valley Gordon, who is often seen playing the upright bass in the backgrounds of my videos, was going to be out front singing with her band "Lil' Miss So and So" from 6 to 8. Wendell Kimbrough from Washington, D.C. is set to perform from 8 to 10. I looked up some of his stuff on YouTube. He's a good singer and only has a handful of videos posted--just the kind of performer I like to support and record.

SO, why am I here writing a blog post at 7:30 this evening instead of taking videos at Sneaky Beans? Because Valley and Wendell aren't the only two musical performances scheduled for "Fondren After 5". The "Save the Strip" group is having an event at the Kolb's Cleaners location with music provided by the "Bailey Brothers". I like that band but here's the problem--the "Bailey Brothers" and "Lil' Miss So and So" are scheduled to play at the same time right across the street from each other. Two bands are not better than one when they are playing at the same time and only 30 yards apart.

At 8 o'clock "Orin Sheffield and Gahd Cop" are doing somewhat of a street performance show about 30 yards down from the "Bailey Brothers" location. They are both interesting and very loud. Maybe it will somehow work out, but in the past it has produced a musical mess. Enough of a mess that I often leave earlier than I had planned and tonight I just figured that there was no point in showing up at all.

This seems like a situation that the "Fondren After 5" group could and should address, but they haven't for the last year and I doubt they will try to come up with a solution any time in the future. That's a shame for the people who want to support the event and for a merchant like Sneaky Beans.

I Am So Tired

2011-10-05T21:13:00.001-05:00

Here's the story:

---Had 7 out of the 8 guys at the Wednesday night group.
---Everyone paid, left me there alone waiting for the check.
---The other Wednesday night group invited me to join them at their table.
---Waitress brought me 2 complimentary Bud Lights.
---Didn't leave Ole Tavern till 8:30.
---With 6 beers stretched out over 3.5 hours, I wasn't close to over the limit. But, I was tired today right from the start and by 8:30 I was totally exhausted.
---Got to get to bed. Tomorrow is Fondren after 5 and I'll be taking videos from 6 to 10. Life is just too busy--I'm ready for my retirement years supported by social security and a company pension.

And that my friends, is the bottom line. I'm going to bed.

Butterfly, Dent May, and the Joy of a Good Conversation

2011-10-04T21:53:00.002-05:00

My photography of late has been mostly limited to lunchtime excursions to take nature photos. I always take the same route, a triangular loop around a group of trees, and it involves no more than 200 yards of walking. It's amazing what you can see in 200 yards of walking if you take your time and look closely.

I don't see this type of butterfly (Male Buckeye) very often and was glad to get some good photos today. Since Nature tends to be very practical, my guess is that there is a purpose behind every one of the beautiful markings on this tiny insect.

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Dent May is a singer originally from Jackson, MS and he has a YouTube video with over 320,000 hits, another with 120,000 hits, and yet another with 60,000 views. He is well beyond the point of needing videos from me so that he'll have something in the future to remember his days as a musician.

But, I know his parents and some of his aunts and uncles, so I wanted to get some videos of Dent when he played last Saturday at the Parlor Market. I took 10 videos and the visuals turned out pretty good. The audio turned out pretty bad. Well actually, the audio isn't that bad except for the fact that it only plays in the left speaker. That's thanks to a mistake I made. It sure would be nice if I had a mentor teaching me how to shoot videos, but unfortunately I'm having to learn by my mistakes. With all the mistakes I've made, one would think that I should be a video genius by now.

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The subject matter for this last part of the post is almost a week old and I just haven't found the time to get it written up. Last Wednesday I had a very enjoyable conversation with Mother after work. We talked about a wide range of topics including discussing ancient cultures, the place of humans in the universe, and the subject of creativity and inventions. As I was leaving, Mother said she was feeling sort of foggy that day. I'll take her on her word about that, but you wouldn't have known it by our conversation.

My next stop after the visit with Mother was the Wednesday night gathering at the Ole Tavern. Price was the only other gang-of-8 members to show up. While it is always fun to have a big group, it was really nice to have an hour long conversation with just one person and with very few interruptions. Price and I always have good conversations when we spend time together. We seem to have a lot of similarities regarding our interests, the way we view the world, and the symptoms we are experiencing as old age creeps up on us.

In our busy world, a good conversation is becoming somewhat of a scarcity. At least it is a scarcity in my busy world. In my case it has a lot to do with being single, and of course a lot to do with me spending so much time at home alone working on the computer. But in general, with all the cell phones and texting and laptops and mobile devices constantly providing a source of interruptions, having a good conversation with someone is becoming increasingly harder to do. That's a shame. No matter how busy life gets and no matter how connected we all become in the future, there will always be the need for a nice, quiet conversation with others. That's the type of staying connected that we all need more of.

Music Videos and Other Things

2011-10-03T22:17:00.001-05:00

Recently I made a big effort to get a crowd out to Sneaky Beans for the K Phillips and Stephanie Briggs show. My talents as a music promoter are apparently nil and the show was sparsely attended. That lack of a crowd didn't stop K and Stephanie from putting on a great show as they alternated taking the lead during a set of about 20 songs.

This was one of my favorite songs. Maybe I have my facts wrong on this, but I believe K wrote this song about an ex-mother-in-law who rewrote the stories of her life by stealing scenes from iconic movies. I guess it doesn't really matter if my recollection is right or wrong--it's a great song either way.

You can hear more of K Phillips' songs at this Reverbnation link and you can watch or listen to 15 videos of K and Stephanie at this YouTube Playlist link.

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---On a recent trip to McDade's Grocery, the young guy behind me put a 6 pack of Miller beer and an 18-pack of Coors Light on the conveyor belt. When paying for my purchase I heard the guy tell the cashier, "Oh wait, I forgot something." I was still in the store when he returned with a 12-pack of Budweiser. I guess what he forgot was just how drunk he wanted to get.

---This Saturday I took some videos of a band named "AJC and The Envelope Pushers". After the show the lead singer, AJC, came over to ask about the videos and if he could get copies. We talked for a couple of minutes. Thinking that he might have gone to school with one of my nephews, Travis or Robert, I asked him if he had been a student at Murrah High School. He said no. Turns out he went to high school in Brandon and played basketball with my nephew Andrew and he remembers my nephew Adam from helping out at some basketball camps. It's a small world.

---Time out---

---Time in. I just got back from a trip to my office in Madison. This past Saturday I took 49 videos despite skipping half the bands on the Parlor Market lineup. It would take about 130 hours to upload these videos to YouTube from my home computer--and I'm using the fastest DSL line offered by Bell South. With the Comcast Business line at work that upload time is more like 45-50 hours.

Now I can't upload the videos during work hours so I will occasionally set up some uploads to start late in the afternoon and continue all through the night. For reasons unknown, tonight's upload decided not to work and I had to drive back to Madison to restart the process. What a pain. Just one of those little things that makes the music video project so time consuming.

---While at the office and waiting about 75 minutes for the first video to completely load, I spent the time checking out what I'm missing by not having television at the house:

--Saw a few minutes of Ashton Kucher and "Two and a Half Men". Oh my, that was really bad television.
--My few minutes spent watching "Mike and Molly" made me realize that maybe "Two and a Half Men" is highly rated because the other shows are much worse. "Mike and Molly" was dreadfully awful.
--Saw a song on "Sing-Off". There were a bunch of guys in gold outfits like it was some big show tune number. I guess the one lead singer was suppose to be a sexy crooner. The number was about as non-masculine as a bunch of guys could possibly be.
--Watched a couple of minutes of "House". Now that's a show that I truly miss even though at time the character House was a little bit hard to take.
--After deciding that "Dancing With the Stars" was of no interest at all to me, I switched over to the NFL Monday Night Football game. The Colts and Tampa Bay. Would have loved this game if Peyton Manning was playing, but since he wasn't, it was hard to get very excited about this game.

All in all, my television watching experience this evening didn't give me any motivation to call the cable company tomorrow. I can catch a few shows here and there on the internet and that's about all I have time for and about all I can stand to watch.

-------Video added Tuesday morning: Here's one of the "AJC and The Envelope Pushers" videos that loaded last night:

Photos, Videos, and an Occasional Feeling of Guilt

2011-10-02T22:36:00.000-05:00

Ming Donkey One Man Band playing "My Baby Rides the Devil Train" at the Parlor Market BBQ Birthday Bash in downtown Jackson, MS (10/01/11).

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You've seen a lot of those coming of age movies where one moment in time or one solitary event becomes the dividing line between childhood and becoming an adult. I never had one of those moments. My transformation was gradual. First there was something like a Mexico work mission where us kids were expected to act like adults. Then maybe coaching one of the junior high sports teams at the church. And occasionally someone had to act like a responsible adult when it came to fraternity matters at Millsaps.

It just sort of happened over time that I became responsible. Now granted, I'll never be completely adult because I'll never be married with kids. Married people and parents have to deal with complex things that will never be part of my training. There are some major pros and cons to that reality, but I'm content with my status as a single adult and have no plans to change.

Somewhere along this road to becoming responsible, I discovered that it made me feel good to be helpful. Don't we all want to feel like we've made a contribution during our journey through life? For the married people they get a lot of sense of contribution by being part of a partnership, and they certainly get a sense of contribution if they bring children into this world. As a single person, my contributions are a little bit more about what I can do for the community and various parts of society.

Earlier on in life those contributions were with the youth group at church. Those were great years up until the point that it overwhelmed me. I kept getting asked to do more and more, and I kept trying to do more and more. Eventually that work went from being the most important part of my life to starting to destroy my life. I walked away and never came back.

Fortunately, that hole in my life was soon filled with coaching. This gave me a sense of contribution for about about 20 years. There were the Pikes at Millsaps, Travis and Robert's teams through the years, plus coaching soccer for quite a while at St. Joseph High School. While that sometimes got overwhelming during years when I was coaching up to 10 teams, that phase of my life didn't end with a burnout. Travis and Robert got older and then there was no one to coach.

I guess my last coaching stint was in the mid-1990's. Life was good after that with me having time to play sports and relax over the weekends. There was time spent watching Travis and Robert playing school sports as well as a few seasons of watching Andrew and Adam. Things were going pretty good in my life until 2004 when I decided to buy a digital camera.

You know the rest of that story. I started taking a few photos at Millsaps, then a lot more, and finally I had to totally walk away because it was destroying my life. Let me quickly stress that no one at Millsaps was asking me to do more and more. It was a case of me seeing more and more that needed to be done and I couldn't control myself. I couldn't control myself because that feeling of making a contribution had been reawakened.

Sometime soon the hummingbirds will be leaving the Jackson area, moving farther south as they prepare for that 500 mile flight across the Gulf of Mexico. It's not really something they choose to do. It's something they have to do. It's something that comes with being a hummingbird. While I guess that it would be possible for me to just live my life without doing much of anything for anybody, there's something in me that feels better when I'm trying to make a contribution to the world. First at Galloway Methodist, then through my years of coaching, more recently the photos at Millsaps, and now the music videos. It's not quite on the scale of curing cancer or securing world peace, but it is something that maybe has helped a lot of people in a small way.

The recent photo and video projects have differed from the church work and coaching in one very big way. With the church and coaching I was very interactive with people and many of those people have been my friends for decades. Taking photos and videos are activities that tend to isolate me from people. Not just the people that I'm recording, but all of those friends from the past who have been edged out of my life by the time I spend recording folks who are often strangers.

A couple of weekends ago I was invited to a supper that would include a lot of my best friends. I was able to make a brief appearance before choosing to leave to go take videos of strangers. Ditching friends for strangers is something I do a lot these days and I'm aware of the rudeness of my actions. It bothers me--not enough to stop taking the videos, but it bothers me.

The night that I past on supper with friends, I took videos of one solo artist and two bands. All total it was 9 people who will get videos of themselves doing something that they love. I saw tonight that one of the band videos had the comment "I love you Daddy!!". That's got to make that particular band member feel good. It's not curing cancer, but it seems like what I'm doing is making some small contribution towards making lives just a little bit better. It's making my life better to make these contributions--I just wish these things didn't come at the expense of friendships that I greatly value even during my absence.